


31 Days Hath December

by AngelOfDeath10



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 23:31:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 60,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21107792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelOfDeath10/pseuds/AngelOfDeath10
Summary: At Konoha Inc. everyone is a big happy family, and Kakashi's new assistant Sakura is trying to believe it, when she has to deal with a crazy boss, and coworkers that range from petulent to infatuated, her world couldn't seem worse





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters in it. This is but humble fanfiction and I am borrowing their likenesses and personalities for a jaunt into the ether of my brain meats.
> 
> Originally written in 2005.

"Welcome to the Konoha family!" The pleasant voice of her boss did nothing but set the young woman ill at ease. She grasped a pen in her hand, tensing and releasing the muscles as she tried to determine what she needed to write down to remember later.

"Thank you Mr. Hatake. I can't tell you how grateful I am to get this job."

"We'll see if you still say that by tax season. . . if you make it that long. And call me Kakashi, we really don't stand on formality here." The way he smiled when he said things took all the bite out of his ominous words. Really, he had been nothing but kind to her during this entire tour of the building. He didn't need to do something so nice on her first day, and she keenly felt how she must be encroaching on his valuable time.

Sakura saw her desk again, all set up except for the metal name plate that would soon reside there, and she smiled tentatively at her boss. He seemed like he was in his mid to late thirties, and the lazy way he was looking at her made her feel as he were seeing something she wasn't. Once more, she looked down at herself nervously, checking to see if she had a run in her stockings or if the slip under her skirt was peeking out. Today was an important day for her and she wanted to make a good first impression. When nothing seemed to be obviously wrong, she looked up with another bright smile and opened her mouth to ask a question.

"Kakashi! Where have you been? I need these forms signed before I can send them off." A deep voice behind Sakura made her start in surprise.

"I was going to get to those soon Shino. You don't need to worry. Everything has its time." Kakashi's eyes glinted. "I felt it would be more expedient to acquaint my new department assistant with her surroundings. Ms. Sakura Haruno, this is one of the two stars of the accounting world for our company, Mr. Shino Aburame."

When she turned around she got a shock. The voice had been so deep, she had expected a much older man, but this Shino didn't look to be any older than she was albeit much taller. The sunglasses indoors were also a bit unnerving. It was winter after all. She wondered if it would be polite to ask why he wore them, but then again she could probably get the answer from Ino if she was patient.

"It's good to meet you, I hope I can do my job well enough to make everyone feel like I'm a valuable assistant." Her humble words belied her absolute confidence in doing this job. After the last one she had had, office monkey work was a cinch. Kakashi seemed almost too easygoing to be real.

The glasses focused on her for a disturbing moment, and then they were back on Kakashi. "I'm serious. This is important."

"Yes yes. Look at the time! I think I'm late for a lunch appointment, you know how these things go. I'll see you two around." Kakashi patted them both on the back at the same time and sauntered down the hallway. If he was late, he certainly didn't look it.

They watched their boss make his way around a corner, and then Sakura gave her second most winning smile to the obviously irritated young man still holding a pile of forms in his hands. Shino handed them to her as soon as he was certain Kakashi was not going to miraculously return and become responsible.

"Give these to him when he gets back. I'll be in my office until noon when everyone else in this building actually does have their lunch break." Shino wandered into one of the three closed offices on the floor, rather than one of the many cubicles in which men and women were pushing numbers. The door didn't slam, but the way it shut firmly didn't invite her back in for any questions or conversation. Shino was as businesslike as Kakashi was casual.

No one had actually told her what she was supposed to do, so Sakura wandered around and took a longer look at her new surroundings. She was grateful to be in a new job so soon. Not a lot of places were looking to hire, particularly during the holidays when everyone was rushing around and thinking of other things. Sakura figured this was an early Christmas present from the cosmos. She felt justified in getting one when she had been so rudely ejected from her last job the day before Thanksgiving.

It was December 1st and Sakura was the proud new member of Konoha Inc., one of the largest bath and beauty companies in the country. They had branches all over, but this was their head, their corporate base, in which the President and most infamous user held court. This was not the biggest building the President owned, nor was it the best maintained, but everyone who worked here knew that if they could get the ear of the President long enough then they might be shipped off to be head of bigger and better branches. Tsunade, the President, liked being surrounded by ambitious and hardworking people. Sakura wondered how Kakashi had ended up here. Then again, he was head of accounting and looked like he was perfectly happy to stay there and go no further if his work ethic was anything to judge by.

"I knew you'd be slacking off." Sakura's reveries had been going on longer than she suspected and she was jolted back into the rapidly emptying office.

The familiar voice of her friend made Sakura smile and she looked at Ino's reflection in the window. "I thought I smelled something. Is that bacon?"

"Ha ha. I get you a new job and this is how you repay me? With insults?" Behind her, Ino bumped her friend's head into the windowpane. "Careful, with that wide forehead of yours you might overbalance at any time, crash down five floors onto the street."

Sakura rubbed her mildly smarting head and turned. "Couldn't resist could you?" She leaned back on the window, ignoring the many people vacating the building as lunch beckoned. "You were worried about me, weren't you?"

"Maybe." Ino looked sly. "Or maybe I was down here to catch a glimpse of some of those dreamy accounting men. Of course I was worried!"

"So no designs on Mr. Hatake? Or Mr. Aburame?"

Ino looked at the offices which held those names on the doors. "I see you've already met two of the power trio. Just wait until you meet the third. He's really something."

"You tried and failed already then?" Sakura was canny when it came to her friend sometimes, and when Ino winced she knew she was on target.

"Shino's a bit of a cold fish, and Kakashi's as slippery as one. They aren't the real prize in the department. Every woman on this floor knows that, not that those two don't have quite the following." Ino looked at the third office, across from Shino's. "It's Sasuke Uchiha that you need to keep your eye on. Just remember, I warned you. Look but don't try to touch. You'll get burned. Then again, when you see him you may try anyway."

Sakura laughed at her friend. They had similar taste in men most of the time, and Sakura was sure that Ino's judgment was spot on. Whatever this Sasuke Uchiha was like, she felt like she was ready. No one could be as bad as. . . well, she didn't want to think about that. Sakura wanted to keep her good mood today.

"As for me, I'd say come have lunch, but I have lunch date with this lovely man who owns a swanky and very pricey restaurant downtown. Chouji something. I'll remember his name on the way there." Ino checked her makeup and hair in the reflective surface of the window. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need it."

"I know." Ino winked and ran off as fast as her designer heels could carry her. Sakura knew this Chouji guy must be more important than Ino was letting on if Ino was actually hurrying to meet him. That was a question for another time. Right now, Sakura was perversely interested in her boss' coworker from whom she had been expressly warned away. All she had to do was wait for him to come out of his office, and then she would go grab a bite to eat at one of the many little places that littered the downtown area in which the Konoha Inc building was located.

She was lounging by a potted plant when Shino happened by her. He stopped and towered over her, pausing as if trying to find words. "Sakura, right?"

"Yes." His words were sure, but Shino didn't seem to know where to go after that.

"If you're waiting for Kakashi to come back, you shouldn't. You take your lunch and I'll tell you what you can do to start out a project later." It took Sakura a moment to realize he was trying to be helpful, possibly even nice to her, and that the deep tone and flat delivery were part of his style and not an indication of displeasure at her personally.

"Thank you. I'd hate to have my first day be unproductive." Just spout out that crap, Sakura told herself, that 'oh I'm so efficient and wonderful' stuff and then when you know what you can get away with. . .

Shino nodded. "Excellent. I shall see you at one then. Good bye."

"Bye." Sakura waved him off to the elevator and continued her vigil. She was going to have to hurry to get lunch if this man was going to keep her waiting. In a way, she wasn't sure why she was doing this other than that Ino had peaked her curiosity.

A hand on her shoulder nearly made her jump out of her skin.

"Pardon me," Came a soft voice. Sakura tried to place the face of the timid looking woman next to her, but other than a vague feeling of familiarity she was drawing a blank. "Are you lost?"

"No. I was. . . just thinking to myself. That's all." Sakura narrowed her eyes, as if squinting would help matters, but the fierce expression made the smaller woman back away as if Sakura had raised a hand against her. Immediately, she felt bad for it, but wasn't sure why. "Sorry if I scared you, I'm trying to remember where I saw you before."

The woman seemed to deflate. "We spoke a day ago. Ino came to me about hiring you. Hinata. . . director of human resources."

Sakura felt guilty. Hinata was strangely forgettable, but then part of that could have been the way she seemed to be trying to hide whether it was behind her desk or behind the plant they were next to like she was attempting at that moment.

"Would you like to have lunch with me, Hinata? I'm new here and I'm not sure what good places there are to eat in this part of town. I worked in private offices a ways away from here and I was never adventurous when it came to getting food so I'm at a loss." Cutting short her stakeout was not something she wanted to do, but with only fifty minutes to beat the crowds and get a bite to eat before Shino drilled her in her new duties Sakura knew she had to move.

Hinata hesitated visibly, then capitulated with a quivering smile. "That sounds nice. Ok."

As they left, Sakura and Hinata were passed by a blond haired blur that almost knocked them both over and yelled back an apology as he stormed into the nearly empty accounting department.

"Some people don't have any manners." Sakura mumbled. Hinata looked down at the ground and mumbled something under her breath.

***

"Tell me about your department, Hinata." While Sakura didn't fall easily into calling her superiors at the company by their first names, Hinata seemed to warrant it. The girl, for being the head of her department, seemed far too passive. How had she ended up in such an influential and people oriented job? It was unusual.

The girl looked down at her nibbled on sandwich and then at her lap. Sakura wished she would meet her eyes even once during the meal. "It's. . . ok. The people I work with are. . . ok."

"Huh. That's good. Why don't you tell me about them?" Hinata fumbled with the question in her brain. "What are their names?"

That got a faster response. "Mostly I only speak with Lee. . . and Neji. Lee is always very nice to me." The conspicuous absence of description for Neji forced Sakura to probe further.

"What's wrong with Neji?"

"Did I say something was wrong?" Hinata looked around, as if she thought they were being watched. Sakura suspected briefly that this Neji person was doing something to poor little Hinata, and her protective vibes kicked in.

"If this person is giving you trouble, you should do something about it. You're his boss right? You could threaten him a little to keep him in line. If there's anything I hate, bullies are right up there." Sakura managed to bring a smile to Hinata's face and for the first time the girl met her eyes.

"You sound like. . . like Naruto."

"Who is Naruto?" Sakura took a sip of her soda, flinching at the strange aftertaste. She was drinking diet today because the holidays were coming and she wanted to make a preemptive strike against those dreaded couple pounds she would no doubt gain. Mild depression over being fired before Thanksgiving had resulted in her scarfing down several pounds of turkey, stuffing, pie, and at least one carton of ice cream in addition to enough alcohol to kill half her brain cells. She had sworn off of all those things as a pre-New Year's resolution.

Hinata's face flushed and the girl began to fidget, turning her paper napkin in her hands. "Naruto works in the advertising department. He told Neji off once for his 'reminders'." At Sakura's look of confusion, Hinata clarified. "Neji sends people who he thinks aren't working efficiently enough 'reminders'. If you get too many, he puts a notice on your door until you improve. He says it's a good shame based motivator."

"This guy sounds like a nightmare."

"Well, Naruto found the sticker on his door and he scraped it off. Then he found everyone else who had a sticker and scraped those off and marched into Neji's office and dumped all the scrapings on his desk. Neji was. . . not happy." Hinata lit up as she told the story. This was an action in Hinata's book worthy of a demi-god it seemed. This Naruto sounded like someone she admired.

Sakura leaned in, interested. "What did Neji do?"

"He told Naruto that he should lodge a formal complaint before wasting him valuable time. And the next day all the stickers were back up, except for Naruto's. Naruto had a plaque. . . screwed into his door."

"I can see they are the best of friends." Sakura said sarcastically. "But Naruto had the right idea. I'm sure the plaque didn't bother him, did it?"

Hinata looked at Sakura as if she had revealed she was clairvoyant. "No. It didn't."

"You should take a page out of his book and stand up for yourself then." Sakura liked giving advice. Whenever she got a chance, she took it. Being a busy body was something she had always done, as a consequence of feeling wiser than most of the people around her. Having a big brain and a big ego did that sometimes.

In a voice that Sakura couldn't hear, Hinata mumbled something into her sandwich.

"What?"

"I said," Hinata tried again, still blushing. "I was waiting for him to come down when I saw you standing there."

Sakura paused. "Oh. I see. I'm sorry I ruined your plans then."

"No! That's not what I meant at all!" Hinata seemed deathly afraid that she had offended her new friend. "I usually wait, but he brushes by me every day on his way to see Sasuke."

There was that name again. "Is Naruto a friend of Sasuke's?"

"Yes, sort of." Hinata screwed her face up as she tried to determine how to say what she was thinking. "Or at least, Sasuke is Naruto's friend. Sasuke doesn't seem to want to be anyone's friend."

"You don't speak to him much then."

Hinata shook her head. Sakura switched the subject to holiday plans and the two of them enjoyed a pleasant lunch for the rest of the hour.

***

Shino droned on in a voice that made Sakura feel oddly sleepy. It wasn't merely that what he was telling her was boring but it was the pitch of his voice that seemed to lulling. If he sang, like at karaoke, then she could see him doing Barry White or someone else with a powerful but low voice. It was a voice that would be sexy if he were talking about something else then what she should be filing where, who should get mail when, and making sure she knew how to take dictation and type. It was when she was ready to start stabbing herself in the leg with her pen to keep her eyes from drooping that Kakashi breezed in, forty minutes after the lunch hour, and whisked her away to his office.

"Copy this and this for me, give me five, duplexed, and stapled. Give one to Shino and one to Sasuke and leave the rest in my box. Are those the forms to sign? Great. I'll have filing for you tomorrow and I'm sure I'll need something typed up after you do these too, naturally. Don't bother to come get me if anyone asks, I'll be gone in another hour. Terribly important meeting. I think you're doing splendidly though, for your first day." Kakashi left her with a pile of documents, and a feeling like she had been steamrolled by a friendly but vague man in a dark grey three piece suit.

Shino looked at Sakura as she was coming out of Kakashi's office. He had been waiting, it seemed. "I'll take those." He grabbed the papers he had wanted signed. "The last assistant couldn't take the stress. Between doing nothing and doing too much they've all quit on him. Best one made it two months before she cracked." Sakura turned to face him, surprising him with the way she seemed entirely steady and prepared to face her tasks.

"Compared to my last boss, Kakashi is an angel." She meant it. "I think I'll like it here."

What he said next actually did make Sakura twitch as Shino walked back into his office. "Wait until you meet Sasuke, and then if you can still tell me that I might believe you."

That was it. Sasuke Uchiha was already bugging her and she hadn't even met him. So far as she could tell, he hadn't left his office. Maybe he was a figment of everyone's imaginations, but she couldn't see Hinata or Shino being the lying type even if Ino was a sometimes questionable source.

She spent the rest of her day, as she went about her tasks, trying to imagine what made Sasuke Uchiha so formidable. The typing was a snap and the copier was the main difficulty as she tried to figure it out. Copiers and fax machines were hated contraptions to her, being the sorts of things that broke down on her at all the wrong times. Computers fared slightly better with her, but that's because she could find ways around the problem when there was one. Either a copier worked or it didn't, and its inner workings were not something she wanted to deal with. Sakura tried to picture what Sasuke Uchiha was like as she fiddled with the copier.

Attractive, no doubt, otherwise Ino would never have given him a second glance. Dark hair and eyes were the usual attention getters for Ino's radar and Sakura was similarly guilty. He was ambitious if he was in his own office and working in the corporate office, and dedicated since he was always busy doing something inside of that office. A man like that couldn't smile much. One of the rules of business seemed to be the longer the hours worked the less you smiled or laughed. Kakashi smiled a lot. Shino had attempted one when he was explaining things to her not long ago. Maybe he had a temper, a fiery temper where he yelled at people and veins in his head throbbed.

Sakura giggled to herself and then hit the copier as it made a hiccupping noise and spat out a copy with lines down it. What else could be wrong with this Uchiha? Hm. . . he might have terrible body odor. That was a deal breaker with her, since she had met many men who seemed perfectly nice until they opened their mouths and rotting odors issued forth. There was that guy she had gone on one date with who smelled of the garlic he loved. Odors bothered her.

What had Hinata said? Oh yes, this Naruto person liked him but Uchiha didn't need a friend like that. So either Naruto was very annoying and persistent while Sasuke was solitary and cold, or some exciting other option that she wasn't aware of. She preferred to think of Sasuke as a broody loner. Wrapped in an expensive suit? Yum. Sakura was excited to meet this construction, but wary as well since reality was so much more disappointing than the beautiful image in her head.

"You'll break it if you hit it like that."

"I'm sorry, I'm new and I have bad copier karma." Sakura looked up from the lighted panel she had been punching at with some ferocity and felt her mouth go dry as she beheld the most gorgeous man that she had ever had the pleasure to be glowered at. And she had been glowered at by some devilishly handsome men in her time.

"Move. I need to copy this and I'm not walking up to advertising to do it."

Sakura was instantly moved from lust to anger at his rudeness. "If you helped me I could finish faster, and if you can't be bothered I know that there's another copier on the other side of the floor."

"This kind makes better copies, and if you're going to insist on being annoying then I suppose I'll have to do your job for you." He looked down his aristocratic nose at her, and Sakura wished he was less than perfect so that when he left she had something to pick apart about him. Why were the beautiful ones deranged?

"Don't feel like you have to do anything for me."

"I don't. You asked." He pinched the bridge of his nose like she did sometimes when she had a headache. "Are we going to argue or are you going to finish your copies?"

Sakura pulled out a piece of paper from the holder and gave the man a tight and unfriendly smile. "While you were throwing a fit about my competence I finally found the button I was looking for. Please, make these copies you need so desperately." Her sarcastic tone seemed to be lost on him.

"If you weren't new I'd report you to Hyuuga." Even his hair was perfect, Sakura noted as he bent over the panel.

"Hinata and I spoke just today and I don't think she'd have a problem with me trying to figure out a copier."

The man looked at her as if he thought she were mentally challenged. "Neji Hyuuga, not Hinata." He lazily leaned against a counter and seemed to actually look at Sakura for the first time since they had begun talking. "You'd better shape up if you're going to make it at Konoha. We don't have room for weak links."

"And Happy Holidays to you too." Sakura stormed out of the copy room, ending the conversation before she got charged with assault and battery on her first day at Konoha Inc.

There must be a water cooler or something where the office ladies gathered. There is no way this man could be as big of an ass as he was and not have some sort of gossip going around about him. She almost regretted not getting him name, but talking to him any longer would have been bad for his health when her well manicured nails cut through the skin of his neck. It was almost quitting time, she noticed when she slammed her things down on her desk. Kakashi was long gone, and she had gotten a huge chunk of work done. If anyone asked, she was taking a memo to advertising.

Ino was on the phone when Sakura got to her office. It made Sakura insanely jealous that she seemed to be so far behind Ino in a lot of ways. They had been making similar incomes, even though Sakura had merely been an assistant at a law firm and Ino was a highly regarded artistic force behind Konoha Inc.'s advertising campaigns. Her last contribution, taking a floral theme to their new product line, had made the company millions and Ino had gotten a nice raise and a new office. Tsunade was known for liking to promote women, particularly if they were capable.

"Give me five minutes." Ino mouthed and then pointed to the phone and rolled her eyes. It seemed she wanted to leave on time today too, but the person on the other end of the line had not realized it yet.

Sakura nodded and waited out in the hallway. She was staring out the window again, this time not looking at anything and internally fuming about that man she had met in the copy room when she noticed that there was someone standing next to her who was definitely not Ino. The goofy smile on the man's face lifted her spirits out of the garbage where she had let them drop, and before she knew it she was shaking his hand and telling him her name.

"Sakura Haruno. I'm new." This gregarious and likeable man, the polar opposite of the person she had been mentally cursing, was also handsome in his own way. His blue eyes were striking and his whole appearance promoted a creative sort of chaos. Even his shirt, buttoned one too high, gave him an off kilter but slightly charming sort of impression.

"I know you're new. I know I would never be able to pass by you twice and not introduce myself. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, but you can call me Naruto. Do you work in my department? If you don't, then lie to me and say you do because I'd be too heartbroken if I didn't get to see your pretty face every day."

It had been a while since someone had tried a line like that on her. It was sweet, but kind of cheesy. "I work in accounting. I'm Mr. Hatake's new assistant?"

The man's face fell and he dragged a hand through his spiky blond hair. "That's just my luck. Not only are you a floor down, but who knows how long you'll even be here!" When he saw the face she made at his explanation he tried to backtrack. "I mean, I'm sure you'll do great as Kakashi's assistant. And if you don't like it I'm sure I could convince Gai that I desperately need a personal assistant of my own. . ."

"Gai would never do that and you know it. He likes it better when we do our own work, no matter how hard it may be." Ino stood with her arms crossed and regarded Naruto who was almost pouting with no pity. "If you're going to hit on my friend, do it on your own time, or at the holiday party like every other sensible lech in this building."

"That's not fair Ino. I'm no Jiraiya."

"And thank everything for that. Now shoo shoo."

Naruto waved as he bounded down the hall. "I'll come see you some time Sakura, you can count on it!"

Sakura tried not to let the day get to her. At this point it was too much everything to take in all at once. She looked to Ino who seemed to find pleasure in her consternation.

"Congratulations Sakura. You're the proud owner of a twenty-seven year old puppy. He'll follow you home if you aren't careful. I've never seen him so smitten. How do you do it, particularly in those shoes?"

"These shoes are sensible, and my calves won't be deformed when I'm forty, unlike yours." She shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose and then had a vivid flash back that reminded her why she was up here in the advertising department. "At least he was nice, unlike this jerk I met in the copy room. He was so nauseating I had to get off of the floor before I saw him again."

Ino hummed to herself, thinking. "Dunno who it might have been. Did you get his name?"

"No, but he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen until he opened his mouth."

The expression that lit Ino's eyes made Sakura think that her friend knew something she didn't but instead she brought up Naruto again instead. "Seriously, jerks aside, you might have some trouble shaking Naruto. He's got energy to spare and even if he doesn't look like he has his life together he's a force to be dealt with. He and I are the only two in the running for Gai's job if he ever leaves." Ino sighed. "Which he won't."

"Why not?"

"Kakashi."

"What?"

"I'll tell you some other time."

Names clicked in place for Sakura and she groaned. "Oh no! That's Naruto! Hinata's Naruto! This is awful! One day on the job and I'm already waist deep in office drama."

"That's Konoha Inc. for you. When we say we're one big family, we mean it. What we don't tell you is that it's a dysfunctional family." Ino linked her arm into Sakura's and led her away. "Let's get you home. Or to a bar. If I had had the past few days that you did then I don't think I'd want to see anything but the bottom of a martini glass."


	2. Chapter 2

She knew this job wasn't as bad as the last one she had because she wasn't popping Tums like candy, but it was still stressful compared to the jobs other people had and Sakura understood how Kakashi had managed to go through more assistants than she had papercuts. The way he shoved papers at her so quickly was causing her pain, physically, and she was trying to learn how to grab things before they were shoved onto her. Kakashi seemed to punctuate long periods of inactivity with flurries of unimaginably productive work. If Sakura were not as good as she had bragged to Hinata when she was trying to get the job, then she might have already buckled under the pressure, but once she got used to working at Kakashi's pace she was doing fine. So far as Sakura was concerned she only worked three hideously busy hours a day and the rest were spent as paid vacation time inside the office. It was better than her cold apartment. She didn't get paid for sitting around in her cold apartment watching bad television.

The real downside, so far as she could tell, was exactly what Shino had warned her of and Ino had warned her away from: Sasuke Uchiha. They had their second run in on the third day she was working, that friday, and it was particularly ugly one. She was already biased because it turned out that the handsome jerk she had met at the copier was none other than the legendary Sasuke, and he seemed to return her vehement feelings of distaste for more than the surface ones. It was not even a week of working in the department and Sakura had already managed to offend him three times. The first had been at the copier. The second and third had happened together.

Kakashi had told her he needed to get Sasuke to look something over before she faxed it, and knowing that she would lose her window of 'Kakashi time' she did the only thing she thought was smart: she walked into Sasuke's office without an appointment.

He had been leaning over a document, computer light the only thing providing illumination in the office besides the dim fluorescent lamp in the ceiling. All his blinds were closed and Sakura was amazed that he could do anything in so little light. It was bad for the eyes. There was displeasure creasing his face as his hand swept down, almost like he had batted something on his face, and he stood to confront her. It was the man from yesterday. That was perfect. Why would Ino warn her not to fall for a guy like him? He was completely odious! A pretty package, but nothing but Styrofoam peanuts inside.

"Who are you and why are you in here? Get out."

"I'm Sakura, Mr. Hatake's assistant, and he needs you to look over this before they get faxed. They are urgently needed elsewhere, otherwise I wouldn't have intruded on your. . . cave." He was rather like a dragon in his dark cavern. Ino said not to get burned. How funny the way things turned out.

Sasuke searched her eyes as if he were trying to sense a lie. "Hand them over." It was a small victory, and Sakura rejoiced in her heart. If she could inconvenience this arrogant model of efficiency then she felt like she had done her part for the world today. She walked over to his outstretched hand. Of course he wouldn't meet her halfway. That would be too much like admitting she was a person. "You may leave."

'oh may I?' she tried not to roll her eyes as she answered back in her head. Instead, as she swept them down she saw something on the carpet. She bent to pick it up, and Sasuke went ashen when he noted her discovery.

"You dropped your glasses."

"I don't wear glasses." He was doing that, 'you must be mentally handicapped' act again. But Sakura could see through people, even someone guarded like Sasuke.

"Are you sure? Because if you did but you were telling me you didn't and you really need these then you're going to have a bad time today when I turn them into the front desk downstairs as lost and you're left squinting at pages of text and numbers all day."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, those fabulous dark eyes that she wanted to stab with hot needles and stare into all day at the same time. "I'm sure you have someone else to annoy right now. I'm a busy man."

Sensing the way his whole being was trying not to leap on her outstretched hands holding the glasses, Sakura decided to take pity on the arrogant bastard. "Seeing as we're both so very busy, I'll let you take these glasses—which aren't yours—and bring them down to the front desk yourself at lunch. You'd have a better idea who the real owner is at any rate. Leave those papers on my desk when you're done with them, good day Mr. Uchiha."

His eyes were trying to bore holes in her back, she could feel them, piercing through her festive red blouse. Let him try, her bold inner voice crowed, all he'll see is my matching red bra. She was walking on sunny clouds until lunch, even when a nervous man spilled coffee on her when he emphatically waved his hands around in frustration at not being able to speak to Kakashi. It seemed that her day was free when Kakshi wasn't around except for all those times she had to explain to people that he wasn't there and when it was possible he could be reached. She told a different time to everyone, since it was a crap shoot when it came to pinning down when Kakashi would appear.

It was almost lunch, and Sakura had been on a break for over half an hour once her boss had made his excuses and skipped off again. Hinata wandered over, moving sideways or along walls like an inept and obvious sort of spy. Sakura knew it was to avoid bumping into people, but she thought that what that girl could use for Christmas was some self esteem. Sakura had eaten with both her and Ino the day before and now it looked like it was going to be just the two of them this time. That was fine. She had a story about Sasuke Uchiha that she couldn't wait to tell, and this way she was guaranteed the ability to tell it at least twice.

Hinata had almost made her way through people to Sakura's desk when she was passed by a fast moving bullet of a blond man. He was all smiles as he leaned on Sakura's desk and picked up her metal name plate.

"I'm so lucky! I thought for sure that you would be one of those people who leaves early for lunch like I do, but I should have known you're more responsible than that. Beautiful and caring. . ." The man was carelessly adorable. Poor Hinata, she'd have to try much harder than she seemed capable to make a guy like him notice her.

"I thought you had lunch with Mr. Uchiha over there," Sakura didn't even bother to look at the office. It would put her off her lunch.

"Sasuke? Aw, I drag him out every once in a while. Maybe I can get him to come today. Yah! That sounds like a great idea." And he was off. Ino had been right. The man was like a puppy, and was totally oblivious to the fact that she was less than thrilled at the prospect of spending time with Sasuke Uchiha in a social situation.

Naruto had disappeared into the office, his distinctive voice and laugh drowning out anything that Sasuke might be saying. Hinata finally made it to the desk and looked from Sakura to where Naruto had gone.

"I. . .I saw you talk to Naruto." There was no jealousy, only a raw sadness in the perceptive woman. "He seems to really like you."

Sakura put up her hands defensively. "I did not encourage this at all. I hope you know I wouldn't do that to you Hinata. I haven't known you that long, but I still would not try for the guy you had your eye on, as your friend. You believe me, don't you?" Hinata nodded, visible relief in her luminous eyes. "Good. He'll figure out I'm not interested and then he'll be all yours. This might even work in your favor. If you both spend more time around me then you can get to know one another. I certainly don't plan to talk to him."

"I don't want him to feel. . . bad."

"Then do me a favor and talk to him." Sakura saw the opening, since Hinata seemed to care for people too much. "Can you do that for me? It would mean so much if you made the effort."

Hinata saw Naruto come out of the office, almost pushing a pissy looking Sasuke by his shoulders. "O-k. I'll do it for you, Sakura." Her body seemed to be trembling. At first Sakura wondered about her, but decided that if she was the director of a department then she had more strength in that frame than she let others know.

"Ms. Haruno." Sasuke had made it up to her desk.

"Mr. Uchiha." She replied with equally distant civility.

Naruto hit Sasuke rather hard on the back for it to be a friendly clap. "What's with you both? Sakura, Sasuke here said that he thought you wouldn't want to have lunch with him for some reason. That's not true is it?"

There was the excuse. All she had to do was tell Naruto that she would rather spend her lunch giving herself more paper cuts and pouring lemon juice on them then eating with this bastard and she would be free. Sadly, if Hinata and Naruto were going to have a chance of speaking to one another it would mean she needed an engrossing distraction. And while she felt Sasuke was gross personality wise, he was also engrossing.

"I don't know where he would get that idea. Let's go before we can't get a table anywhere. It's cold and I don't want to have to go too far away."

Sasuke looked at her as if she had gone mad. Maybe she had. Sakura thought she had gotten to a point in her life when she wouldn't have to put up with jerks in her spare time. In the pursuit of the happiness for a girl she barely knew yet, and some peace of mind for herself from an admirer she had never asked for, she would make sacrifices.

"See, Sasuke. You're imagining things again." Naruto noticed Hinata standing next to Sakura's desk. "Hey! When did you get here Hinata?"

Hinata swallowed hard and balled her hands into fists as she spoke. "Sakura and I were going to have lunch together."

"More the merrier! Let's go, like Sakura said. I'm starving. I know this great place, not too many tables, counters instead. They serve a great bowl of ramen. . ."

***

She would say this much for it, it was warm. The crush of people was such that they could not sit down at anywhere except the counter, and this served Sakura's plans excellently. Through clever maneuvering and some pushing she managed to work it so that Naruto was at one end and she was at the other with Hinata and Sasuke in the middle. While this afforded Hinata a wonderful opportunity to exclusively talk to Naruto, being next to him, it also meant the only person that Sakura could realistically speak to in the busy shop was Sasuke. He was not her first choice for conversational partner, but they both bore it with moderate tolerance after a rocky start.

"This better be quick, I have a lot to do at the office. This was a bad idea to begin with." Sasuke began to get up from his seat.

That stick up your butt getting too uncomfortable? "Is it that hard to sit down for half an hour and eat broth and noodles?"

"Yes. I'll be going."

"Is it me?"

"Excuse me?" Sasuke's face twisted into a perplexed sneer.

Sakura broke her chopsticks apart, rubbing them together and trying to smile so that a keenly observant Naruto didn't butt in and talk to them. "I said, is it having to eat with me that has you ready to leave?"

"No."

"That's good, because I know we didn't hit it off so well. That day in the copy room. . ."

He scrutinized her more closely. Since he was no longer trying to leave he unbuttoned his jacket. "That was you?" She wondered if he was joking or if he didn't actually remember.

It was slightly insulting that he didn't remember. How many people in the department, the building even, had pink hair? "Yes."

"I assume you no longer hit the copier."

"Only when it needs to learn its lesson." She tried not to sound too sarcastic. "Can we start over? Sakura Haruno, nice to meet you."

He looked at her warily. "Sasuke Uchiha."

"Let's sit here like regular people and eat our meal and then when we get back to the office. . ."

Sasuke smirked at her, as if he had figured her out. "You seem to think I care about being nice to people, even nominally. I'm having lunch with you people so that I don't have to deal with Uzumaki's constant pestering and that's all. This is not an invitation to try to eat up my time at work with useless personal interactions."

"Just so we're clear." Sakura said, no longer trying to mask the thick sarcasm underlying her tone. "You don't need other people." So, you're not really human, I hear.

"I'm glad you understand."

She knew, somehow, that even though he was cold and impersonal that he probably had a fan club in the office based off of his looks alone. Sakura might have been one of those among their ranks if it hadn't been for the way she had been desensitized to handsome but bastardly men. Three years she had worked for him. . .

The food was in front of her and Sakura realized she had spaced out and Naruto was trying to yell through two people to tell her something.

"I ordered something great for all of us! It's on me today so eat up."

Sakura reached behind Sasuke and tapped Hinata on the shoulder. A quick conversation with their eyes later, Hinata was trying to falter her way through thanking Naruto who was in the process of choking on the food he had started inhaling. If worse came to worse, Sakura was sure Hinata would hit him on the back to save his life, but she became unconcerned once everything at that end of the counter was on its own.

"It won't work." Sasuke was picking at the large piece of pork on the top with some distaste. Sakura had a feeling that he would be picking at his food even if it were fillet mignon. "Uzumaki is too dense. And if you're trying to get points with Hyuuga, then you're going for the wrong Hyuuga."

"I'm not doing this for any calculating reasons, and I think you should go back to pretending I don't exist if you're going to be like that." Sakura was so offended that she wasn't sure she could sit next to this man anymore. There was the stomachache excuse, or the ever popular 'woman's problems'. . .

"Geez, Sasuke." Naruto shouted over the increasing lunch noise. "Why do you get to sit next to both of the girls?"

Hinata mumbled something and then found her lap particularly interesting as her face turned beet red. Naruto looked at the girl, mock shock playing comically over his handsome face.

"Hinata! I can't believe you said that. Second time this week someone has said that. . . I'm not turning into Jiraiya, I'm not!"

This figure was becoming epic and she didn't even know who he was. "Who's Jiraiya?"

"He's a dirty lech, the company disgrace! I'm surprised you haven't run across him yet."

"He's the company VP, and Tsunade has him on a short leash after what he pulled this summer. I'd be surprised if he's even allowed to leave his office until an hour after the building empties." Sasuke pushed his bowl of food away, half eaten.

Naruto stuck out his tongue at Sasuke. "He's still a dirty lech. I would know, I had to be his assistant when I first came to the company. The man never gets anything done! He spends all his time chasing after anything in a skirt."

"As long as he doesn't sink the company with his bungles it doesn't matter what he does with his free time."

Naruto turned to Sakura, as if he were whispering confidential information, but to say it loudly enough across two people made the effect understandably silly. "You see, Sakura, Jiraiya is the one that Tsunade sends out as the rep to talk to various people. She's the face of the company and he's the one who schmoozes. So this year she sends him to all sorts of beauty pageants that they sponsor to get better name recognition. It was a good plan. . . but. . ." Naruto faltered.

"Jiraiya can't keep his hands to himself. The company is being sued by at least twenty different girls all over the country."

"Be fair, Sasuke, he says he didn't touch them, he only spoke to them." Naruto picked up the story. "So this summer Tsunade flies into a proper rage, tells him if he gets one more law suit then she'll take him to a vet to get fixed. It's only recently gotten calmer, but word is that the law suits are still on."

Sakura hoped that her job wasn't in trouble. Law suits often meant cut backs, and she was a new and not terribly valuable addition to the department. They finished up their meals and left together.

***

Working late was not a new experience for Sakura. Pulling long shifts was a common occurrence at her old job and she didn't mind it much. What did she have waiting for her when she got to apartment? There was the prospect of cooking dinner, some bad cable television, and checking her email. Life was routine, punctuated by renting the odd movie or sometimes going out when Ino had time and no date. This was no how she had pictured her life when she had gotten out of college. She had wanted to be a doctor, but loans were calling and it was so easy to get a job. . .

It had only been a few years. She could go back, take out more loans, do the whole medical school thing like her parents had encouraged her to. It was looking pretty darn appealing compared to what her life was like now. Her brain was being wasted cataloguing the appointments that Kakashi was keeping when he remembered to rather than helping people as she had always dreamed. This job didn't force the same level of personal loyalty that her last one did. Working late, looking out at the darkness so early in the day, she knew she was destined for something better.

Her last boss had been an intense person. He had sometimes commented on how smart she was and how he was surprised she wasn't a lawyer herself. Sakura knew that she could be a good one, but it wasn't where her passion lay. Thoughts of her boss made her cringe. What had she done to get fired before the holidays? Sakura did stellar work, she knew, and her performance had been nothing less than perfect for all three years she had worked for him.

"Jerk! Who does that before the holidays? He could have waited until the new year at least. . ." She was gathering her things into her overstuffed purse and sauntering towards the elevator. There was chapstick in there somewhere and she wanted to put some on before she walked out into the excessively dry December cold.

The grand entryway, high ceiling not trapping any of the warmth from the heating system, felt as bad as if she had stepped outside. Engrossed in digging through her purse, Sakura only vaguely heard the voices as they got nearer. She didn't recognize them so she didn't bother to look up from the void of her purse.

Naturally, the collision was her fault. The overstuffed purse, bearing every essential she possibly thought would be needed, spilled its entire contents a full fifteen feet over the hard floor. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was—erm."

"If it isn't Ms. Haruno."

"Mr. Shukaku." She wished she had found that chapstick. Now her mouth was as dry as her lips.

"Call me Gaara, please. We no longer need to be so formal."

The two other people he had been speaking to gave her looks that expressed varying degrees of interest. The woman, beautiful in a way too perfect to be natural, seemed to find this run in merely annoying but the white haired man's eyes lit up.

"I don't think we've met. And I make it a personal goal to meet every person in this building." The man brushed past Gaara, standing over Sakura who was crouched on the floor holding a tube of lipstick and a swiss army knife, and extended his hand. "My name is Jiraiya, and you would be. . ."

"Not interested. Jiraiya, don't you start today. Considering what Mr. Shukaku is here for I would think you would show some circumspection." The beautiful woman narrowed sharp eyes at Sakura. "Who are you? You must be new."

"I'm Sakura Haruno. I'm Mr. Hatake's assistant." That name registered with both of them, and they shared a pained look before regarding her with more sympathetic eyes.

This was Tsunade, as Sakura assumed the beautiful woman with the commanding presence could only be the company President if she ordered around Jiraiya like that. If Gaara was here then that probably meant. . .

"Ms. Haruno used to be my own personal assistant. We parted ways not long ago, but I'm gratified she found a job so quickly." He tilted his head to the side, examining her in a way that made her nervous. "Would you wait for moment, Sakura, I'd like to speak to you." She nodded tightly, trying to swallow the lump in her throat.

Her heart was beating so quickly that Sakura thought she was going to die. The three of them continued their conversation while she picked up her things. From what they were saying it appeared that Gaara was indeed defending Jiraiya in the upcoming lawsuit. It must be serious if they called in one of the best and most ruthless corporate lawyers in the business. Sakura knew Gaara didn't come cheap, but then his record was almost spotless. He was known for having a perfect defense for every client, and was a genius when it came to law.

". . . well, I'm satisfied that you are the best man for the case and I am delighted that you are willing to take this on." Tsunade sounded sure of every word. Gaara was here to stay, but at least there was no reason he would come to her department. He had messed up her life enough for one month already; she could stay reasonably safe in all probability.

"Thank you. Your case does not look difficult, but I would like to make further appointments to speak to both of you for later this month if you are amenable."

"Jiraiya and I will make any time available that you may need. Won't we?" There was a thump as one of her expensive shoes stomped down on Jiraiya's loafer. Sakura saw him quickly turn his head away from her direction as she stood up with her purse's contents once again where they should be.

"Good to meet you, Ms. Haruno, and good luck. Kakashi is difficult, but Mr. Shukaku has told us that you are up to the challenge." Tsunade actually smiled at her.

"Have a good evening." Sakura waved with a boneless hand, seeing the only block between her and Gaara dragging a reluctant Jiraiya in tow.

Alone, in a dark and empty room, Sakura wished for a reprieve from her sentence. What did she do to deserve this? Had she been a whaler in a past life? Did she not give enough to charity? Anything she could do to change her terrible luck this year. . . that was it! It was all the bad luck she should have had during the year, it accrued and was winding itself out so that she could start next year fresh again.

Gaara, in that dark brown he was so fond of in suits, was as devilishly handsome as always. The dark circles under his eyes from his chronic insomnia didn't detract much from the overall image of power he radiated. The pretty green eyes and stunning rust colored hair he sported had made more than one woman swoon in his presence, and Sakura had not been immune when she had started on as his assistant when he too was beginning his practice in the firm. Gaara's infamy had never made her feel intimidated, but the aura around him of danger was certainly present. His attention was utterly devoted to her, and Sakura wished she had left on time today to avoid this twist of fate.

"I didn't expect to see you here. What a surprise." He rarely spoke first, so Sakura started things off in hope that it would end as abruptly as it began.

"You landed on you feet it seems, Sakura. I'd glad."

Arrhythmia didn't run in her family. Maybe she should get her heart checked out this weekend. "I'm lucky. If you'll excuse me, it's getting late and I need to—"

"Have dinner with me."

"What?" Never, not once in their entire association, had Gaara ever asked her to do something outside of work. Neither had he used her first name until today it seemed. "Tonight? You see, I can't there's. . . I mean, I had plans to go out already."

Gaara knew when someone was lying. The way his smile didn't spread to his eyes signaled to Sakura that she was going to be in a load of trouble if she didn't say something convincing to be left alone by her former boss. Life was kind to her, for once, when the elevator dinged.

"There they are now. My new friend, since I'm still getting to know people here. Hey! Over here!" Sakura ran over to grab the arm of the hapless passer by who had been implicated in her lie. "So you see, Mr. Shukaku, tonight is bad for me."

"Some other time, then, Sakura. Call me Gaara, please." He walked over as well to meet the two of them. "It's been a while, Sasuke. It seems that running across Sakura isn't the only surprise I get today."

Sakura flinched. Of course it would be him. He'd give her away in a second, but she hoped he would play along and ask questions later. Oddly, as she looked up his face was lit up with a fierce smile.

"Gaara." He looked fevered, and Sakura wondered how they knew one another. "Ms. Haruno."

"Remember, we're having dinner tonight. Sasuke works in the department with me, you see, and he told me he'd explain some things over a meal. Right?" Anything, she cried silently, I'll do anything you want me to if you grant me this boon.

Sasuke paused too long for her liking but she leaned against him when her legs almost gave out from relief. "We'd better leave, then. . . Sakura. I'm rather hungry as lunch was. . . unappetizing. Gaara, some other time."

"Indeed. I look forward to it. Sakura, we'll be in touch." Gaara watched them go, Sakura's arm linked through Sasuke's, and frowned.

Once they were a decent distance away, Sakura unlocked herself from Sasuke's side. She breathed deeply and exhaled a puff of warm air. Sasuke watched her light up and turn back into a person again rather than the meek Hinata imitation she had worked mere minutes ago.

"You really saved me. I owe you more than you know. Thank you." She began to walk away, but was stopped when Sasuke said loudly after her.

"I thought we were having dinner."

She stopped, wishing he could be decent about this and not tease her when she was actually grateful to him for helping her out. "Knowing how much you like me, or people in general, I don't think that we need to take this any further if you—"

"I really do need to get something to eat, and I want to know how you came to be Gaara Shukaku's target of interest."

"Do I have to?" Reliving the past three years was one of the last things she wanted to do.

"You said you owed me. Consider this me calling in the favor." Sasuke walked in the opposite direction down the sidewalk. "We'll take my car."

Sakura admitted defeat. She had to look on the bright side, at least it wasn't dinner with Gaara.


	3. Chapter 3

"Where are we going?"

Sasuke didn't answer, he merely steered the car down winding streets in the direction of a part of town she rarely had visited. It looked like an obscure part of Chinatown, and it seemed a bit sketchy, but maybe he knew of good restaurants around here.

"You seem upset over something. Why did you want to have dinner with me? Is knowing about Mr. Shukaku so important to you that you have to—"

"Must you be so noisy?" Sasuke seemed to be regretting his decision. His hands gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white. "We're almost there."

They pulled into a small parking lot where there were a few other cars, but not enough to make Sakura think that this place was some undiscovered jewel so much as a standard kind of dim sum, as the sign proclaimed it to be. Ino, who only found herself going to or being taken to high priced and well known restaurants, would have been shocked to know that the idol of the accounting department liked cheap and greasy Chinese food.

He didn't say anything after he pulled into a parking spot and turned off the power. Sakura followed, not expecting him to be so gallant as to open her door for her or any other kind of date-like activity. It was difficult not to try to classify this outing as a date, when it was exhibited many of the qualities of one. The implication when she left with him was supposed to set Gaara off whatever track he had been on. The idea that he wanted to go out with her for any reason made her feel slightly queasy. It wasn't that he wasn't attractive, or even that she was too angry at him not to be flattered (though her anger seethed even now at the thought of him), but she didn't have any chemistry with him and she knew going out would only result in painful conversation and awkward silences. Honestly, that's what she expected out of tonight as well with Sasuke.

The rush of warm air was refreshing once she entered the building, while Sasuke was already speaking to a waiter. "Two. The usual table will be fine." So he came here a lot, did he? She didn't think she had a regular table anywhere. In college she had had a regular chair in a coffee house, but that was a consequence of working too hard and liking caffeine too much. These days she didn't need the extra stimuli, as working was proving to be exciting enough for her nerves.

The table was situated near some plants that hid them from the view of nearly anyone else that might happen by. It was private, but then she had come to expect that privacy was a must in the life of Sasuke Uchiha. They settled down to wait for a cart to be brought forth with their first selection of foods, and Sakura pretended that she wasn't being stared at by an intense pair of dark eyes.

"So how do you know Gaara?"

Sakura wished he could have at least pretended that they could talk to one another like regular human beings before he launched into the point of this whole outing. "I worked for him for three years. I was practically fresh out of college, and I thought it would be a good idea to get some money together and take a break before I continued on with school."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, we didn't have to go anywhere for me to tell you about him."

Sasuke tightened his lips together, dissatisfied with her lack of detail. "I don't think you're telling me everything. Gaara was showing an unusual amount of interest in you, and there must be more to your association with him. I called in a favor for this, so don't make me ask questions to get the full story."

It looked like Sakura wasn't going to get away with the easy answers during this meal. The first cart appeared, giving her a moment of grace as Sasuke pointed to a couple items and they were marked down on the tab. The waiter wheeled away and Sakura picked up a dubious looking fried thing. It would probably taste ok, but at this point she wasn't sure what to expect.

"I think it's funny that you like this kind of food."

He poured soy sauce onto his own fried thing and said, "I get exactly what I want from the menu, there is as much as I want to eat but no more, and I only pay for each individual portion as it comes by. It's an efficient way to eat. Very little excess and cheap compared to most meals."

"But does it taste good to you?"

"It's serviceable. I have no complaints. No more changing the subject."

He chewed as Sakura sighed and tried not to let her inner frustration and awkwardness surface. "Mr. Shukaku—Gaara—fired me from my job at which I had done excellent work faithfully for three years. He fired me without warning the day before Thanksgiving. It very nearly the worst time of year he could have done so, and other than my severance pay I didn't have any backup other than my savings. . . and I have other plans for that."

"What happened, specifically?"

Sakura took a bite of the fried thing and found it to be oddly chewy but tasty enough. At least the food here wasn't horrible, despite Sasuke's less than glowing praises for it. She didn't taste the rest of it as she thought to herself.

"I came into work as usual. Mr. Shukaku had said he didn't want to be disturbed, which was unusual but not wholly out of synch with his usual routines. Sometimes he needed time to himself, no distractions, and he wasn't afraid to shut the world out completely if he wanted it that way." She didn't add that Gaara reminded her of Sasuke strongly based on behavioral patterns. "At lunch he came out and handed me some mail and told me that he wanted me to type up a memo to be sent off to his sister. . . it was such a typical day that I guess I didn't expect to be slapped down like I was. It was at the end of my day, he came out of his office and handed me a two envelopes with my name on them. Silly me, I thought it might be my Christmas bonus early. . ."

"Two envelopes?" Sasuke poured himself tea from the pot in the middle of the table which had been brought while Sakura spoke.

She nodded. "One was my severance pay, and the other was a letter commending my good work and assuring me that although I was being let go that I would get nothing but glowing references from the firm. Everyone else was gone for the day already, since I tend to work late and get there early, so I couldn't ask anyone in the office if they knew about this or not." The bubbling feeling of unfairness that gripped her in the pit of her stomach made her lose her appetite almost entirely. The fried thing digesting in her stomach turned with the violence of her emotion at remembering that day.

"And now he shows up at your new job."

"Yes. Not just that, but he is treating me like. . . well, better than most people honestly. I don't think I've seen people be regular with him, even his sister and brother tended to keep him at arms length. How are you so familiar with him?"

Sasuke stopped the cart that slid by and took something off of it. Sakura declined her portion of it and he frowned again at her, as if she had prompted him to waste food. "I don't think I need to explain. We simply know one another and have for some time. Tell me more about his conduct leading up to the firing. What sort of patterns did he stick to on a daily basis. . ."

The rest of the 'date' was spent with Sasuke grilling Sakura on what Gaara did every minute of every day. It would have been less awful for Sakura if it were not for the fact that she found she could answer with increasing detail no matter what question he asked. She knew more about Gaara than just about anyone else besides his family, and even in that case it was shaky since Kankuro made a point to avoid Gaara most of the time due to the competitive spirit leaving bad blood between them and Temari was not overly affectionate either. Making law a family affair only seemed to work on the business side of things, and it didn't do much for their sense of togetherness. Sakura knew she would never want to go into business with anyone in her family. They were all as demanding and prone to perfectionism as she was and they would all go crazy trying to do everything without flaw and then blame one another when something did go wrong.

By the end of the evening Sakura felt like she had the beginnings of an ulcer and about a gallon of tea in her gut. Sasuke finally became satisfied and stopped asking about Gaara, and Sakura wished that anyone else had been walking through the building at that moment. The chances that anyone else in that building knew Gaara Shukaku were slim, but it would provide more fodder for rumor and conjecture to try to figure out what their connection was. Sasuke could not be so interested if Gaara were a mere acquaintance.

Sakura dug into her purse, now in total disarray after her explosion on the floor earlier, but before she could pull out her wallet Sasuke had already put down enough to pay and a perfectly calculated tip besides. She was trying to walk, stuff things back into her purse, and thank him all at the same time but he seemed to ignore her as he quickly walked back to the car ahead of her. Rather than think about this evening any more, she decided to just be grateful it was almost over.

"Where is your car parked?"

"In the garage three streets down from the Konoha building." Sasuke nodded and they didn't speak to one another as he drove them back. It would have been nice if he had at least put on music, even talk radio, to lighten the mood. As it was Sasuke was in full brood and Sakura didn't want to attempt to interrupt it.

They pulled up next to the garage and Sakura tried to thank him once more. "Thank you for paying for dinner, you didn't have to. I can still pay you back."

"Forget it."

She smiled.

"I really mean forget it. If you bring this up in the office I will deny it ever happened."

The smile stayed on, pasted there in an almost futile effort to hold on to any kind of good feeling Sakura could manage. There must be a nice person buried inside of him somewhere. Every so often this evening she thought she might have seen a glimmer, but it could have been indigestion.

"Good night, Mr. Uchiha."

"Good night, Ms. Haruno."

***

". . . and then I went back to my car which was almost frozen shut. I hate winter sometimes."

Ino stared at Sakura as if she had broken the news that she had joined a French convent and she was leaving tomorrow. "You don't get it, Sakura, this is the first sign of the apocalypse. . . Sasuke paid for dinner."

"Maybe I'm lying. He did say he'd deny it, and I could have made it up to make you jealous."

"I won't say the thought didn't occur to me, but I think that you would have thought up something better than the whole Shukaku thing. I know he's not on your list of favorite people, and if that's all you talked about then that would be a pretty lame date."

Sakura wrinkled her nose and picked at the leaves of one of the many plants that adorned Ino's office. "It wasn't a date. It was. . ."

". . . a dinner with a guy you're interested in, where he paid. That's close enough in my book." Ino squealed and Sakura knew that telling her friend might not have been the best idea in retrospect. She also didn't bother to refute the 'interest' comment since that would end in unconstructive bickering. "I can't believe he saved you from Shukaku in the first place. Do you have any idea how many times he's ignored the 'helpless woman in trouble' tactic? I know a number of women who fell down in front of him, one who even timed it so that she could fall down a flight of steps and land at his feet. He didn't even blink. Yours was lame in comparison to a lot of them."

Sakura continued to fiddle with the plant until Ino slapped her hand away. Ino had always been protective of her greenery. "All I figure is that he and Shukaku have a history. And from the way Sasuke was acting I don't think it's a positive history."

"Almost no one has any idea about Sasuke in general. I certainly can't help you and I practically stalked the man for a few months." Ino tapped her lip with her finger, a sign of deep thought for her. "Your best bets would be Shino or Naruto. I'd say Kakashi too, as his boss, but he never imparts other people's personal information. Shino has worked with him the longest, but Naruto makes it a point to learn as much as he can about everyone. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't already know everything down to your cup size. . ."

"Thanks Ino." It was entirely wholehearted after that last comment.

She put a friendly arm around Sakura's shoulders. "Don't get me wrong, I'm jealous as all hell because Sasuke noticed you. But I also like a good drama and your situation seems to carry all the possibility of some of the best gossip since Jiraiya got loose from Tsunade two summer's ago at a nude beach. I want to help you in any way I can."

"Have I ever told you that you're evil?"

"Every week since we were twelve at least."

"Just so you know."

***

"Yes?" Shino looked up at her through those prescription sunglasses he liked so much. Sakura wondered how he saw anything at night. How did he drive?

"I was wondering if you had a moment." This was gutsy. It had taken a day or two of Ino's goading and Hinata's quiet support for Sakura to muster the confidence to approach Shino in his inner sanctum. The quiet Aburame was as imposing as Sasuke was, even if he was not known for being as rude. Part of that was his height, because at well above six feet he towered above most of the men in the accounting department with only Kakashi being able to look him in the eye.

"I suppose, so long as this isn't going to take long." He pushed the button on his computer monitor and turned to face her as she sat down in the chair he provided for guests to his office. While the blinds around his office were drawn on the outside, as in Sasuke's, the ones covering the window were wide open as was the window itself. The room was like an ice box, and Sakura rubbed her arms as the cold set in.

She couldn't help but comment on the obvious, being nervous in general about asking a favor of a man she hardly knew. "How can you stand the cold?"

"I find fresh air is worth whatever troubles come with it regardless of the season."

"Ah." She looked around the office and forgot her rapidly dropping body temperature. The walls were covered in glass cases in which bugs were mounted with their names printed in clear lettering below each one. If that were not enough, there was a terrarium in which beetles appeared to be making their merry way under a heat lamp. She envied them the heat, but did not desire to get any closer to those bugs if she could help it. The raw horror on her face must have been badly concealed.

"I see my hobby bothers you." Shino sounded factual rather than disappointed. "Would you prefer to speak with me in a conference room?"

Sakura forced her eyes to center on Shino and only Shino, therefore putting the bugs out of sight and mostly out of mind. At least the terror dispelled much of her embarrassment. "I came to ask you about Uchiha, I mean Sasuke. . ."

Shino was unreadable behind those glasses, but she had a feeling the room somehow became more frigid. "I don't have time for nonsense. I had thought you were better than that, Sakura."

"You misunderstand me. I ran into a situation recently. . ." She went through an edited version of her troubles. ". . . and so you see, although I'm sure you are above office gossip it would be helpful to understand what sort of social interaction I have been thrust into regarding them, if you know anything."

He was immobile and for an unreasonable moment she wondered if he had fallen asleep sitting up during her explanation. It was her experience that these executives tended towards little sleep, and Gaara's fabled two hours a night had left her with odd expectations. With all her observations, maybe she should write a book. Shino finally leaned back in his chair, showing her that he indeed was not unconscious and slowly spoke.

"While I still suspect your motives and your accuracy, I have to admit that you have given me much more information about Sasuke than I have been able to glean in years of knowing him. In return I'll tell you the only useful thing I know, and after that I'd prefer you take your inquiries elsewhere, is that clear?" She nodded. If she had given him more insight into Sasuke's character then Shino might be grateful to her. They were well known rivals in the department, even if that rivalry was understated. "I had heard rumors about the Uchiha family long before I even touched a ledger. Something unsavory happened in connection to his brother and father, but no one knows any details. When I first met him Kakashi said something about Sasuke's father and that's the only time Sasuke showed as much response as I ever saw out of him—and it wasn't good. It sounded similar to his reaction to Gaara Shukaku, if you are to be believed."

Things were getting interesting. Problems with his family? Could Sasuke be related to Gaara in some way? They were similar in a lot of ways, but that didn't prove anything. It was starting to get interesting, like she was solving a crime and putting the evidence together.

"Thank you Shino, you've been particularly helpful. I won't bother you again unless it's for work." She rubbed her arms as she stood, trying to get the blood pumping and the warmth to return.

The man drew his eyebrows together over his glasses, and she sensed he wasn't entirely pleased by her statement. "I didn't say that. I merely wished to imply my general disinterest in discussing Sasuke."

"I take it women have tried to ply you for information before." He nodded. "Did they all get a much as I did?"

He shook his head. "Their stories were not as good as yours. This was an exchange." She had almost made it out when Shino's voice stopped her. "Does he really wear glasses to read?"

Sakura looked over her shoulder and winked.

***

While this next interview was less stressful from a personality perspective, Sakura dreaded it more. Naruto was still obnoxiously chasing after her, but he did it in a friendly and playful way so was easy to brush off. Sometimes they actually had real conversations together, and Sakura would say that he was becoming as good of a friend to her as Hinata. If only those two connected better, then her life would be happier all around.

What she had to consider especially was that Naruto had a big mouth, and as Sasuke's only friend (even if it was self proclaimed and not mutually accepted) it was entirely possible that Sasuke would find out what she was doing. She would not put it past Sasuke to make her life a living hell in the department until she left for the unforgivable crime of trying to know more about him.

It was the end of the day, and things were oddly calm considering all the need for bustle over the holiday purchasing. Then again, if all the ads were running this month then the deadlines for them would have had to be earlier. This was a brief lull.

Finding Naruto's office was easy, since his was the only one with an embossed plaque on the door proclaiming in bold darkened letters: 'You Can Do Better Than That'. This Neji guy must be a real monster. She was morbidly curious already, but there was no call to go to human resources the next floor up if all she was going for was to be glowered at by a bad tempered man. Sakura could do that without leaving the accounting department.

Naruto pulled open the door before she had the chance to knock, while she studied the plaque and gathered her wits together.

"Sakura!" He surged forward as if he was going to hug her, but she sidestepped and he instead pretended like he had needed to stretch his arms. It made her feel bad for encouraging him by showing up at his office, but she wanted to know more and research was something she had always been driven to do. "Come on in."

There were wrappers for snacks littering the floor along with presentation boards, magazine clippings, the odd suit jacket, and even a few socks. It wouldn't surprise her if the floor had not been vacuumed in weeks. What janitor could work around all this trash? It was disorder that Naruto navigated through expertly, as he cleared off a chair and patted it with one of his patented toothy grins.

"Don't mind the mess. I believe in an open space filing method. Trust me, I know where everything is in this room." He sat on a corner of his desk as Sakura picked her way through the room towards the chair. "What brings you all the way up here?"

"Actually, it's sort of hard for me to say this but. . ." She trailed off, unsure of how to start. With Shino it had been straightforward. She presented facts, he considered them, he traded her his information for hers, and she had left. With Naruto it wouldn't do to be linear because he obviously didn't think in a linear and organized way.

The man's face fell, those eyes of his becoming as glossy and sad as a puppy begging by the foot of the table for scraps. "This is about Sasuke isn't it?"

"Well. . ." Sakura watched Naruto hit himself in the head.

"Stupid stupid Sasuke. It always happens. As soon as I like a girl it's 'Sasuke this' and 'Uchiha that' and 'would your friend like to come see the movie with us too', blah blah blah. You're the third one." He pulled at his already loose tie. "At least you came up to tell me yourself. It was only a matter of time. He already likes you better than any other girl I've seen him near."

The way Naruto worked was fascinating. It must be a mix of intuition so good it was scary as well as a healthy dose of natural charisma and bluff naiveté. Sakura's original purpose for coming up had already been consumed by this new interest. "Likes me? How do you figure that?"

"He always says you're annoying, whenever I've visited him lately."

"That hardly seems like a sign that he likes me."

"You don't get it, he actually notices you! Most people don't even rate annoying, let alone most girls being mentioned period. He must sense how special you are, like I did." Naruto was good at laying the lame flattery on thick, even when he thought his chances were nil.

She couldn't allow him to do this at his pace. "Naruto, listen to me, I came here to ask some questions and yes they are about Sasuke. . ." Naruto nodded, staring off into the distance hopelessly. "But only because I think I might be in the middle of a feud he's having with a man named Gaara Shukaku."

"Gaara!?" Naruto was by her side so quickly she almost fell backwards in her chair in an attempt to not let their heads collide. "When did that jerk get anywhere near Sasuke and which one of them threw the first blow?"

This was better than she'd hoped for. Naruto appeared to know everything she wanted to. She should have come to him in the first place. Telling him about Sasuke's impromptu rescue was as far as she got before Naruto interrupted her.

"Don't do it Sakura. Gaara's just about the lowest form of life out there. He's dirt. He's worse than dirt. Anyone who associates with him is—"

"You do know you're talking about my former employer."

"—er, is probably misguided in thinking he's not so bad." Naruto coughed nervously before he continued. "We all went to high school together. I transferred late in middle school so I didn't know anyone, but Gaara and Sasuke have hated one another for as long as I've known them. Gaara's. . . what's that term for someone you always compete with but can never seem to beat. . . damn, all I can think of is Gai and Kakashi. . . it's on the tip of my tounge. . ."

Sakura scanned through her synonyms. "Nemesis?"

"That's it, I think. Or something like that. Rival might be more accurate now that I think about it. Bah." Naruto snapped his fingers and dug around in his desk while he spoke. "When Sasuke joined the track team, so did Gaara. Gaara joined the debate team, so Sasuke did too. They competed in any academic subject they had together. They were co-valedictorians of our graduating class. . . found it!" Naruto pulled out a framed picture and waved it around in triumph.

Sakura leaned forward over the desk as Naruto turned it around and pointed down at a picture of younger versions of Sasuke and Gaara who shook hands with strained expressions on their faces. Naruto made a stupid face in the background.

"Let me guess, you didn't wear anything under your robe that day, did you?" Sakura noted that other than looking younger, they were all still handsome, even the goofball in the background. Did any of them ever have an awkward stage? Sakura remembered years of waiting to catch up with Ino in curves and social capability. At least she knew the folly of those days and accepted that she had her own style.

"How did you know? Beauty and brains. . ." Naruto tried again, maybe even out of habit. "Couldn't you just give me a chance to—"

"Sorry."

"Damn."

Sakura looked at the picture a little longer while Naruto rifled through his desk searching for something else.

"Who took this picture?"

Naruto scanned his memory for that day. Graduation had been one long party for all he cared. School done, more school left to go. "Hm. . . considering it isn't tilted funny, probably Kakashi. Iruka was never so talented with the camera. My head got cut off in half of the vacation photos."

"What?!"

Naruto looked up from whatever he had been doing, the jocular qualities completely erased from his being. "Iruka was my adoptive dad. He and Kakashi were friends and that's why we ended up moving when I was 13." He looked around, reminding Sakura of Hinata at her most self aware. "What I tell you next must never go beyond this office. I'm only telling you because I trust you Sakura. I've never taken to someone like I took to you, but I have good instincts about people."

"I won't say a word." Inside she was salivating, because this kind of trust and power were exactly what she fed off of when it came to personal interactions. Naruto wanted to trust her and she wanted him to trust her, so their friendship moved faster than nearly any other she had had. Too bad for him that she could only see him in a brotherly light, and a little brother at that.

"Kakashi took care of Sasuke from the time he turned twelve and left the care of the state. Sasuke lost his whole family when he was nine and bounced around through foster homes until Kakashi took him on. That's part of why I liked him so much, since we both didn't have families. I used to act out a lot because I wanted the attention so bad. . ." Naruto seemed so strong, especially when this was a subject that was still close to his heart. Sakura wished she did have feelings for him beyond friendship. He was such a worthy man. "Anyway, you understand if word got around then people would throw around terms like 'nepotism' and Sasuke's career would suffer."

At least Sasuke and Gaara weren't related. If they were family then she would have seen Gaara whenever she looked at Sasuke and that would have been nearly as bad as seeing Gaara in the flesh. The guilt and gratitude she felt compiled into the need for self disclosure matching what Naruto had told her.

"I want to tell you something too." Naruto perked. It seemed today was a day for personal revelations. "I used to get beat up when I was younger. The other girls didn't like me and I didn't have enough confidence in myself to fight back yet. One day they pushed me down and I cracked the side of my head on a concrete step." Sakura took off the blue headband she always wore that tied her hair back. "Five stitches. And I have a small bald spot right here." She pointed to the physical imperfection that she still fussed over. "Your secret is as safe with me as mine is with you, I hope."

"You're beautiful as always to me, Sakura." They had only known one another for two weeks, and already she knew he would be her friend as long as she had breath in her body. The moment they shared as she tied her headband back on was special. Then he opened his big mouth. "You think you'd go out with me someti—"

"Naruto!"

"Sorry, you can't blame a guy for trying right?"


	4. Chapter 4

Sasuke didn't throw his computer against the wall, but he had been picturing doing that for a healthy portion of the afternoon. Watching the plastic fly, the screen crack with a sharp electric crack, and the keys fly out of the board like shrapnel sounded immensely appealing, but as usual these impulses were relegated to the realm of fantasy. If that were the only thing he had been fantasizing about, then he might have been in a better mood.

For the third time that morning Sasuke stood up from his desk and wandered over to the drawn blinds blocking the glass panes that under other circumstances would have allowed people to see inside his office. Why Tsunade had thought that installing so many offices with indoor windows was a good idea, he didn't know. When he had first moved into this office he had felt exposed, as if at any moment someone was staring at him when he wasn't paying attention. The lack of light had been soothing, too, and covering up the window to avoid all distraction was the next logical step.

The blinds which isolated him also today provided him with the perfect cover, and so the only person who was noting his uncharacteristically curious habits was himself. That was bad enough. Carefully, so as not to attract attention through any quick motions, Sasuke used his index and middle finger to push the blinds slightly in and apart. The slit he made was small, but he could see through it well enough to note the location and activity of the object of interest.

Sakura was reading some sort of thick reference book. From here he could see that it was a text on anatomy. No romance novels or trashy magazines. He couldn't fault her on reading a textbook, and he knew that she wasn't slacking off but rather had not yet been subjected to Kakashi for the day so citing her as lazy would be inaccurate. Sakura's expression was serious, back straight and brows slightly drawn together, as she studied the book in front of her. While he watched, she traced her finger over something on the page she was looking at before turning to the back of the book and keeping her place with a captured thumb in between the sheets.

What made her different from the other women in the building, than the other women he had ever met? Sasuke wish he knew, because he had a feeling Gaara knew and that thought alone was enough to drive him to distraction. Naruto seemed to know it too, but getting any sense out of Naruto would be impossible. He wanted to avoid speaking of Sakura around Naruto at any rate because once Naruto got on the subject of her he tended to stay there long past the point of exhaustion for his listener.

It was at their tennis game last weekend, the day after in the infamous "date", when Sasuke got to hear his fill about the beautiful pink haired woman. Naruto was barely bothering to play, which was fine because Sasuke was so distracted by the topic of conversation in between sets that they stayed neck and neck instead of Sasuke's usual moderately easy domination.

Sasuke wasn't about to say a thing to Naruto about the encounter with Gaara. The blond idiot would only overreact and the last thing Sasuke wanted was to get in a real fight with his boss' current lawyer. Oh how satisfying it would be to get into a fight with Gaara, like they did early in middle school, and to smash his fist into that smug green eyed bastard's' face again. That day at lunch had been one of the worst of his life. Middle school as a whole had been some of the worst days of his life. Even after Kakashi came along things never gotten good in his life, merely more stable.

The calendar on the wall drew his eyes away from the engrossing sight of Sakura reading and he noted that it was the 15th. In ten days it would be Christmas, and Christmas meant the usual holiday visit. He was swept away from work, from Gaara or Sakura, and found himself in a world of sterile smells and scrubbed walls, beeping monitors and his own deep sense of responsibility. Rage and helplessness were soon to follow, and Sasuke disliked the feeling of them even more than his confusion over Kakashi's pretty assistant.

He was about to sit down again and attempt to review those pages he had read but not really read before he started his ambulation about his office when there was a commotion outside. Back to the window he went, but his vision was blocked by a person. This commotion had drawn a crowd it seemed. This could only mean one thing: Kakashi had returned and Gai was visiting.

"Kakashi! Come out and face me, as men ought, straightforwardly and with a mind prepared for the challenge!"

The man was ridiculous, but his over the top tendencies had served him well as head of advertising. Big personalities seemed to gravitate there, which is why Sasuke was glad to be in accounting surrounded by, mostly, sane and quiet people. Well, quiet people. The person blocking his view refused to move so Sasuke had to find another spot to peak out of. By the time he had an unobstructed view Sakura was trying to speak to Gai. It was useless, of course.

"Sir, can you keep your voice down please?" When she wanted to she could sound very stern. "Mr. Hatake is a busy man. Do you have an appointment?" Sasuke knew Sakura never kept an actual appointment book because that would be useless for Kakashi. She was trying to tactfully get Gai to go away.

"You might say, my young lady, that we have an ongoing appointment." Gai's eyes flashed as he thought of their past 'battles'. "If you shall not get him, then I'm afraid I must go in anyway without your permission."

At that moment, as Sakura considered her options, Kakashi stepped out of his office and walked by them both, his eyes glued to the paper her was holding. Gai, who had locked onto Kakashi expectantly as soon as he had emerged, looked crushed when Kakashi completely ignored him. Sasuke knew there was no way his foster father had not heard the commotion, but he had been trying to curtail Gai's little competitions for years.

"Kakashi, this year I have victory within my grasp. Turn and face your defeat!"

Kakashi paused and looked up from his piece of paper with a cheerful but vague smile. "Oh, when did you get here Gai?"

"None of that. I know my influence stretches far and wide, and this year the deciding proof is that which I grasp in my hand!" Gai held it aloft, a small bag of cookies as if they were a trophy; they looked like they were butter cookies with green and red frosting. "Behold! The first batch of cookies, gifted to me by a kind secretary of the department. You cannot deny me my obvious superior popularity. HA HA HA HA!"

There was no falter in Kakashi's smile. "You've got me there Gai. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make a photocopy of this." He waved with his back turned and Gai almost began to cry under the powerful influence of his happiness.

"The first victory of the holiday season goes to me. My powerful charisma has finally climbed up to match that of my great rival. The next victory shall tip the scales in my favor. We shall see who is gifted the most presents this year, oh yes we shall, and then this year's trials shall be finished!" Gai laughed himself all the way over to the elevator while Sakura stood there with her mouth opened in shock.

She only unfroze herself when Kakashi rounded the corner out of the copy room and handed something to her to file. "Mr. Hatake. . ."

"How many times must I tell you to call me Kakashi?"

". . . you got that basket of brownies two days ago from the lady at the reception desk downstairs. Didn't you receive it? I made sure to put it someplace you would see it. . ."

Kakashi placed a comforting hand on Sakura's shoulder and Sasuke shifted uncomfortably at the sight. Was it appropriate, to be so familiar with an assistant like that. . .?

"I got the brownies."

"Then. . ."

"Think of it as an early Christmas present." Don't act all noble, Sasuke mentally berated Kakashi, you didn't want to deal with the situation so you ran away. What did Kakashi have to prove, doing that? Was he making himself look good for Sakura?

He must be going crazy. Everything did not revolve around Sakura Haruno. The world had been the same place before he knew she existed and now that she was everywhere in his life he should be looking forward to the day when she made her exit. With Sakura or Gaara interchangeably on his mind, his productivity had fallen at a rate which had earned him a questioning email from Neji. Sasuke replied to the email that no, he was not recovering from some major surgery and that there was nothing to be concerned about. It hadn't been a warning from the infamous human resources efficiency expert, but an honest confusion over this aberration in Sasuke's work. It was too much to deal with: Sakura, Gaara, and the usual holiday mess of family and memories.

No, he told himself, this was not an emotional problem, it was a mental one. He had been spending too many late nights in the office, and he was still getting used to the glasses he now needed for reading (temporarily, from working too hard and staring at text on and off a computer for hours without a break). There were lots of reasons that he could be distracted, but his body would adjust and then everything would stabilize.

Calmly, he stationed himself before the computer screen. It was craziness, thinking that this could be anything except a mechanical period of adjustment for his body. Emotions had never rocked him before, not since that one day a few years ago when the investigator had come so close to finding. . .

Now his hands were shaking. Numbers. Beautiful and clean numbers would solve everything, and for two hours Sasuke fell into a world without people. It was pure, it was cold, it was everything he wanted out of life.

The door opened, there was no knock. Sasuke had thought about locking his door, but the inconvenience of having to respond whenever someone was delivering a memo or a report to him had become so troublesome that he had stopped bothering. They entered with hunted looks, the peons deposited their memos, and then they left without a sound (sometimes without a breath—one person had passed out when they fumbled with the door too long). But few had the audacity to intrude upon him in such a manner, door banging against its stop. The glare he gave to the offending party was fearsome enough to have driven past interns to tears.

To Gaara, it was par for the course in their association with one another.

Sasuke didn't stop glaring and instead turned back to his computer with the same intense look. "Get out and don't come back."

"That's no way to treat an old friend."

"I'd rather bite my tongue off then let people think I'm your friend."

Gaara smirked. "Tactful as always."

"I save it just for you." Sasuke finally gave way and faced Gaara again. "Why are you still here?" He glanced at the time. "Lunch started a long time ago. You're too late to harass Kakashi's assistant."

That wiped the smile off Gaara's face. "Speaking of Sakura. . ." Sasuke tried not to let the discomfort he felt at Gaara using her name show. They weren't that close in Sakura's mind, based on what she had told him, so why did Gaara throw around the implication that they were? "I came to give you a friendly warning."

"Oh really?"

"Sakura Haruno is a project I've been monitoring for some time and if you mess this up for me, I'll destroy you and your petty little career." Gaara's face cracked in that smile he tended to sport before he went in for the kill. "Even though I know your bosses are somewhat aware of your father. . . I don't think they understand the full implications of what it means to be an Uchiha. . ."

Sasuke was somewhere past livid and hovering in the space just before homicidal rage. "Get the _fuck_ out of my office. Assault and battery notwithstanding, I have no reason to hold back." How he managed to stay at his desk and not leap over it to strangle the other man was pure rock solid control.

Gaara picked up a pen from the holder at the corner of Sasuke's desk. Great, Sasuke thought, now he'd have to throw it away. "No need to be so vehement. I told you, it's a friendly warning. I find it extremely interesting, though, that you finally decide to move in on a girl and it happens to be _my_ girl."

"She doesn't. . ." Sasuke found the words he had wanted to say, a full denial of interest in her, dying in his throat. "She can make her own choices. I don't have anything to do with what she thinks. Coming here was a mistake on your part. I'm not the one doing the chasing." It was true, however, since this whole misunderstanding was due to her forwardness.

"I'm not a fool, even if all those women who fall over themselves to get to you are." Gaara was taking apart the pen and snapping each piece. If Sasuke were not so economical as to buy cheap pens, then it might have bothered him more. As it was, Gaara was doing it and therefore it had to bother him. "And while you may not initiate it, if you understand the sensitivity of your situation then you'll make sure you don't encourage it."

Sasuke solidly stared at Gaara, baleful, amused. "You really want this don't you, you want her." There was a note of wonder in his voice. Gaara didn't need anyone because, to Sasuke's understanding, the both of them had been placed in this world to serve themselves. Other people entering into the picture was almost unthinkable. Sasuke was not as good at this as Gaara, having never been able to shut out Kakashi or Naruto as completely as Gaara had cut off even his blood relations.

At once Gaara realized he had already given too much away. Sasuke was too smart to let a weak spot like this go without jabbing something nasty and sharp into it. "She's convenient. A girl like her, she can do anything. She's perfect in every way she needs to be. I can't find a better partner to ease my rise to the top." Gaara looked to the side of the room, flicking his eyes away in a manner that suggested to Sasuke that there was more going on in this situation than Gaara's simple desire for a competent companion.

"What is it you see in her?" Gaara, Naruto, Ino, Kakashi, Hinata, even Shino. . . they all were a step away from worshipping the ground she walked on for various reasons. What could they all perceive that Sasuke was missing?

Gaara relaxed. "If you can't see it, Sasuke, then I've already won." He tossed the remains of the pen on Sasuke's desk in a splash of ink. Why did he always have to be so messy when he did things? It must be a stylistic thing, to savage his surroundings and leave chaos as a reminder of his existence.

They exchanged no more words and Gaara left. Sasuke released the tension from his knotting muscles as best he could; he had not noticed that his body was so tightly wound until his leg started to cramp.

***

Unable to restart the work that had been difficult enough to get into before Gaara's interruption, Sasuke sought out the only other person who he could think of as an ally in this building. On the way there he took the liberty of cracking his knuckles and stretching out his muscles. What a shame they lived in a 'civilized' world where they couldn't take their problems to a more physical level without repercussions. Instead of a solid punch all Sasuke could do was draw someone up a bad performance report or refer them to the very man he was about to visit. Neji had made even more women cry when in meetings with him than Sasuke had. A few men too.

Neji and Sasuke got along, or, that is, they were similar and shared an understanding of respect. Neji craved power, as a bastard son who was only later adopted back into his blue blooded family, so he could shove proof of his worth back down their throats. Sasuke craved powerful positions only for the money they gave him. Sasuke needed money more than he needed friendship or affection. Those other things got in the way of his ambition. He didn't discount that there might be room for them later on, but he couldn't pencil them in at the moment. Neji also respected Sasuke because Sasuke performed better than nearly any other employee in the rest of the company and tended to bring others up with him with his high expectations rather then other people thinking they could relax because he took on the bulk of the work in any project. Sasuke's rising tide lifted all boats in his department, and compared to Shino who did little to encourage or motivate his inferiors Sasuke was more likely to advance in the next year. Anything that brought higher productivity at no cost made Neji happy. That is, it made Neji feel an emotion that did not displease him. Putting things in positive terms had been difficult for the efficiency expert ever since he was a small child.

Instinctively, Sasuke swept the room, inspecting hallways and open doorways for people he did not want to encounter. Hinata was out to lunch with Sakura, as she had taken to doing. The person Sasuke was trying to avoid in particular was not the shy department director but the irrepressible Lee, expert at positive reinforcement. It was as if someone had looked around for the person most unlike Neji and then planted him in the department in a position with the same amount of power and an office next to Neji's to see what would happen. Lee was no doubt not taking a lunch either, so Sasuke was extra cautious to avoid him. While Neji did not take a lunch because it wasted time, Lee did not take one because he loved to do his job.

The danger zone behind him, Sasuke knocked on Neji's office door.

"What." The demand came from inside the room instead of an invitation to enter, but Sasuke knew that it was as good a signal as any. Neji's scowl softened into a blank look as he beheld the star of the accounting department. "Why are you here?" As usual, he wasted no time.

"Is there any way for security to bar entrance to certain people entering the accounting offices? I have been subjected to disruptions recently that are adversely affecting my work."

Neji twirled a ball point pen in his fingers and leaned back in his chair. "It isn't like you. You know this is a ridiculous request, and yet you are still here speaking to me, wasting both of our valuable seconds."

"I think it's reasonable to request tighter security. Kakashi never even allowed the cameras to be installed on our floor."

"And yet your floor has the lowest net total of supplies stolen each year. It would be a waste of money to argue with him again." Neji scratched something off on the paper he had been referencing before Sasuke entered. "I think you should take your mind off Kakashi, and particularly off his assistant, and then your motivation to work might miraculously return."

Why did everyone think that Sasuke and Sakura were an item?! It was exactly the same interference as what had happened when Naruto appeared. Open up a little bit and suddenly someone will wedge themselves into your life so tightly you can't comprehend how to start getting them out. Playing the hero for a damsel in distress was costing him more than he had ever imagined it could. That will teach him. Sasuke would have to go and nip this thing at the source before it got out of hand. If it weren't for the fact that Gaara had gotten her fired before, Sasuke might have requested Neji to do the same for him. But there was no way in hell that Sasuke was going to sink to Gaara's level.

As Sasuke was leaving, feeling resentful towards Neji for buying into the office rumor mill, he got him back. It was a good thing there was a convenient corner next to Lee's office, because it gave Sasuke something to hide behind after he knocked on Lee's door. With every sensible person at lunch, the enthusiastic young man would have no one to accuse of the attentions except for Neji. Sasuke smiled as he disappeared onto the stairs to get back to his own floor. Let's see how productive Neji could be with Lee hounding him for the rest of lunch.

***

"Happy Wednesday!" Sakura said as she gathered her things together in her standard end of day order. There was the coat, the scarf, the piece of hard candy to hold her until she got home and made dinner, the application of chapstick to guard against the cold, the neatening of her hair before she braved the weather again, the gloves, and then finally the purse. It was like getting armored for war, but rush hour did feel like war. She was working on her road rage, but she couldn't help a scream now and again when she was delayed beyond reason. Big cities were glorious for nearly everything except their poor transportation situations, she thought.

Shino cocked his head to the side, confused. "Why happy?" The coat he wore enveloped him up to the nose, and she had to imagine the slight frown that he was giving her behind it.

"Well, it's over isn't it? That's good enough for me." Shino nodded solemnly, and Sakura wished that any of her frivolity would get through to him. He seemed like the kind of guy who needed a good laugh at least once in his adult life. It gave her something to do. The office work was getting down to routine these days and all the free time was driving her crazy. If things continued like this, she would be well prepared for her first year of med school, having read through and nearly memorized all the facts she needed. Maybe she would send off those applications she had prepared on a whim last year for graduate school. This time next year, she could be back in school. It was a heady thought, and she glowed with it. It was either happiness or sweat, since she had all her winter gear on and hadn't gone outside yet.

She was on her way, swinging her purse and thinking about what she was going to make for dinner, when a hand grabbed her and pulled her inside an office. Sakura had the mace halfway out of her purse before she recognized an unhappy looking Sasuke in front of her. What had she done now? Here was another person who desperately needed to smile before his petrified that way. It was a common childhood threat from parents, but since he hadn't had parents maybe he didn't know of the dangers.

"Yes, Mr. Uchiha? Is there something you wished to speak to me about?"

Sasuke had his special glare on, the one he saved for people who had made obvious mathematical errors, and shook a finger in her direction. "Fix it."

"Pardon?" She had no idea what he was talking about.

He swept a hand through his hair. "The whole building thinks we're dating!"

"Really?" She cracked a smile, but then coughed and looked down when that seemed to make Sasuke's mood even darker. There was no way she could be happy about this news. . . right?

"Our special association ended when you stepped out of my car that night, Ms. Haruno, you understand that don't you? Now make our non-involvement clear to everyone else."

Sakura didn't appreciate being ordered about. "So the great Sasuke Uchiha isn't powerful enough to stop a little rumor? I'm sure people will forget about it soon enough."

Other people be damned. He wanted Gaara to stop breathing down his neck. "The rumors are spread by women, and women never listen to what I say." Sakura looked at him dubiously. "They look at me with simpering eyes and don't hear a word."

"That is so much sexist bull. Men are just as bad as women when it comes to rumors. And if the women simper then the men cower. You aren't a people person, you know."

Her cheeks were flushed from the heat of being in her coat and she was wafting the smell of mint in his direction from whatever she had been eating before he abducted her into his office. With a challenging look lighting her eyes, Sasuke felt unreasonable urges jolt his system. This had been an upsetting day. Everything was confused and he couldn't seem to win in any of the discussions he had had, even this one.

Sakura was the cause. She was everywhere, infesting his brain, drowning him in pink and green. He still couldn't figure out why, but being in her exclusive presence after days of going over every detail of their time together was filling him with a warm feeling not unlike anger.

"Gaara came to see me today." He struck out at her, knowing she still had difficulty facing this topic. Sasuke struggled with Gaara as well, but he had had years of practice to look like he didn't. "I'm your only line of defense and it would do you good to keep me happy."

Sakura had gone pale and the caged look she offered made Sasuke feel like the jerk he was being. Doing this, berating a subordinate, had never made him feel so personally awful before. Maybe they could come to some sort of agreement instead. It was a strange thought, since he was not the sort to negotiate—Sasuke demanded, and things happened.

"You're going to get me fired, aren't you?" Her words cut him deeper than he wanted to admit. Sasuke knew her words were perceptive, but he didn't want them to be.

"Be reasonable, Ms. Haruno, I'm not your enemy." Sasuke moved over to put a hand on her shoulder. When Kakashi had done it, she had seemed to grow more at ease. It was imperative he touch her, it seemed, and what had started out meaning to be a companionable hand altered suddenly. His palm broke out into a sweat at his side. "Understand that I am merely guarding. . . my. . ." She wasn't listening and he had talked more than he wanted to today already.

She looked sad, withdrawn. It wasn't typical for her. Only Sasuke seemed to be the one making her miserable whenever she was around. She laughed for others, maybe that was part of that missing element in her character he could not pinpoint. Up close he had never noticed how beautiful she was. Warm and colorful as he was frigid and washed out.

The hand on her shoulder tightened and Sakura began to twist away when all at once she had to deal with another problem trickier than his strong fingers digging into the red wool of her coat.

Sasuke was kissing her, and hell must have frozen over, as she told Ino once it would have to, because she was liking it.


	5. Chapter 5

First, there was the moment of shock, when all there could be was instinct and all that was felt was pleasure tinged with the beginnings of realization.

Second, there was horror, when reality set in, context was given, and suddenly the world was no longer as peachy as it had been a fraction of a second ago.

Third, there was reflex, when Sakura acted on what she knew was happening but didn't think hard about what the consequences of that action might be. All she knew was that someone who professed to dislike her was kissing her, without having asked her first. There was a term for what he was doing, and she didn't have to take it. She wanted to take it, but under these conditions it didn't feel right quite. Good thing her shoes were sturdy. . .

Sasuke tore his lips off of hers and staggered backwards, face twisting into a pained expression. "What is your problem?!" As he clutched at his desk behind him for balance Sasuke tried to gauge how much damage could be done from a solid stomp to his instep. Who knew something like that could hurt so much?

"I think that that should be _my_ line." Indignation had given her back her confidence. "I'm sure this was just a mistake. In the future you'll stay out of my business."

"Since when do I take orders from you?" Under his haughty disbelief Sasuke was trying to understand for himself what had happened but a moment ago. He had upset her. . . and then he went to alleviate some of it. . . and then. . .

Sakura took a deep breath, shaking a little at the end of it. "You aren't going to interfere with my life and I'm not going to bring you up on harassment charges." It wasn't in her nature to make threats, but Sasuke had never proved to be reasonable in the past and you worked with what you had.

The smirk that stole across his face made her want to slap him. Why were the cute ones always deranged? "Who would believe that I would have to force myself on any girl?"

It galled her that, for all that it was one of the most egotistical statements she had ever heard, it was a somewhat understandable retort. Sasuke was handsome as sin, and obviously aware of it. She exhaled, blowing wisps of hair up in a draft as she tried to collect her wits around her more effectively.

"You have a nasty streak in you. I'll admit, it would be a hard claim to make. . . but my credibility with Hinata, Naruto, and Ino is impeccable. And of course the incomparable Mr. Shukaku is willing to vouch for me." The sarcasm of the last part didn't lessen its bite. He didn't look like he was up to rejoining any sort of conversation, eyes flashing with the knowledge that she could still corner him. It was too much to deal with today. Sakura was tired of this, she was tired of the animosity and she was tired of having to jump when he called. It was better when they ignored one another.

"I am establishing some ground rules." Rules were good, Sakura lived her life by other people's rules on the surface and it was about time she made some rules of her own public. "One, stay out of my business—past and present. I won't ask you for any more help and ignoring me should be second nature to you at any rate. Two, you may not touch me."

Sasuke watched her tick of her quaint rules on her fingers and concentrated on the dulling pain in his foot. If this made her feel good, to enact imaginary barriers against him, then she could lecture him to her heart's content. His loss of control had only proved to him that she was a dangerous variable in his life. The further away she wanted to be, the better.

While she continued to talk, Sasuke pried his eyes away from where they had fixated on her lips and attempted to reexamine things again now that there was no immediate danger of anything meaningful happening in the next few minutes. The girl liked to talk a lot, didn't she?

The most likely outline went like this: he had been thinking a lot about Sakura, and coupled with frustrations over his rage at Gaara and his general stifled feelings after having a bad day his body had channeled all that wasteful energy into the most convenient target. Seeing as she was feeling bad and he had wanted to comfort her, (he'd examine why he would even attempt that at a later date) then the energy had found an outlet that was only an extreme version of what he had wanted for an outcome. It could have easily been a hug, or some other equally vile touchy feely reaction. Yes, that was exactly what had happened. It was a misfire of his reflexes. The kiss was a mistake.

Ironically, it had probably been a more convincing way for him to get her out of his life than anything he could have said to her. Sakura was quite a perverse creature when it came to him. Outwardly she seemed to hate him, in that cute way that people hate someone else when they don't know what hate really means. Sasuke hated people. He knew what it was like to hate someone so intensely that you could only derive pleasure from their pain, and nothing else. Sakura, in her innocence, seemed to derive pleasure not only from disliking him but from all the activities that were involved. An example was how she seemed to be really getting into making these rules. She would have to run out of clauses soon.

". . . and 12, should I hear a single thing about the state of my employment here in conjunction with your name then. . ."

Enough already. "Are we done now?"

With her momentum punctured, Sakura ground to a mental halt. "Yes. Do you understand the conditions?"

Following his line of thought before, disregarding how badly this meeting had gone, Sasuke felt like if this was the last time they were to speak to one another then he should warn her. Gaara was after her, but he was not reasonable like Sasuke was reasonable. Gaara was a predator. If Gaara didn't get what he wanted, then he would take it. Sakura didn't understand evil; she couldn't if this was all she could respond with to Sasuke forcing himself on her. (He wasn't proud to admit it, but that's what he had done.) This had been a misunderstanding, so Sasuke would take his lecture like a good boy and walk away. Sakura would need more than lectures to fend off Gaara.

"I. . ." The look she gave him, as if he were the lowest of the low, agitated him. She didn't want his help, and he was a fool for wanting to offer it after all this. "Good bye Ms. Haruno." It was solid, final. He would be cut free and things would get back to normal. By the time he had rounded his desk to get back to his seat he was actually surprised to see her standing there still.

She was proud, too proud. He waited for the last word that he knew she had to have.

"Good bye Mr. Uchiha."

The door clicked behind her and Sasuke tried to shake off the dark feeling in the back of his mind. Sakura could take care of herself, and she was no longer any concern of his. With her banished to the back of his mind, Sasuke turned to his computer. For some reason he felt like doing work, and quite a lot of it. There was much he had to make up for, after all, but now he could approach it distraction free. Yes, life was back to normal. He was happy.

Right?

Of course. Of course he was happy.

***

Sakura stormed out to her car. She had showed him. Now, with clear guidelines in place all she had to do was stay as far away as possible from that damn Uchiha. It was only once she had gotten in the car that her rush died away while the engine warmed. Left in its place was the constant replay of what had occurred in his office. It had been sudden, surprising them both she was sure. It hadn't been premeditated, from what she could reason out about who Sasuke was and how he interacted with others. She thought that it would be a cold day in hell before he would willingly touch her or anyone else. Well, it was cold enough today. . . why didn't the engine warm up faster?

While she had reacted like she should have, (no one should be able to take advantage of her at this time in her life) there was a traitorous part that begged her to reconsider. It wasn't merely because Sasuke was attractive that this happened, there was also the fact that she had been feeling more like she was on his side after she learned about him from Naruto. Sasuke Uchiha didn't seem like the kind of man who would want anyone on his side, but Naruto proved it could be done and she had a feeling that they didn't have to be enemies.

But a kiss was too much, it took them into realms she couldn't deal with, and Sakura needed to be where she was comfortable. To her knowledge she had never been in a situation that was out of her depth since she was small and still held on to her insecurities. If she was honest, those insecurities were still there, buried under a slough of facts and the rationalizations that she developed to cope with a life she wasn't satisfied with. It was ok that she wasn't the fastest or the strongest because she was very well going to be the smartest.

She didn't feel very smart right now. She felt lonely and rejected, despite the fact that she had done all of the verbal rejecting. When was the last time she had been kissed and enjoyed it? There were elements to this adventure that she could brag about, if she wanted. He was stunned by her beauty, (she didn't think that was true), he was acting on a secret crush (it didn't seem like him), or even that he had been overcome by lust (from a man icier than Ino on the second day of her period this also seemed a little far fetched).

The heater kicked in and Sakura was treated to the blast of warm air on her already blushing cheeks. He was insufferable and closed off, but he had grown up that way. Did that excuse him for being an overbearing ass? No. But it let her feel less upset at him for his actions because she felt like she understood why. That kiss, however, could not be explained.

It was hard to turn the wheel. Her car was old and the power steering sometimes didn't kick in when she wanted it to. Struggling with that occupied her interest for some time as she flipped switches and attempted to get her heap of a car onto the street. It was so much nicer in Sasuke's. . . well that ended her peace of mind again. It seemed that today was going to be filled that dark haired weirdo.

At what was assuredly the back of a gargantuan line of cars, Sakura turned on the radio and tried to orient herself once more. Would it have been so terrible if she had let the kiss happen? It wasn't half bad in of itself, even if the circumstances of it weren't quite what she wanted. With Sasuke being as emotionally (and socially) stunted as he was, that could have been the only way to let her know that he felt something. What if that was an attempt to reach out to her and she had crushed him? The idea of Sasuke, brusque and emotionless, being crushed by anything she could do seemed like another leap into a world of fantasy.

The urge to call up Naruto to talk or Ino to (ha) gloat, was strong. Getting Naruto involved at this juncture was unwise. None of his predictable reactions to the information would help. Ino would get through her shock and make excuses as to why it didn't mean anything and Sakura had been away from the dating scene for too long if that was enough to get her riled up. Hinata would stutter and apologize for not having any idea of what to do or think about this. Sakura didn't need solutions. She pushed the gas pedal softly, wishing for empty roads which to blast down instead and clear her head, and stared at the sea of red tail lights.

Even if she was having complex emotive reactions to Sasuke, she had shut down the possibility of anything with her condescending speech to him. To his credit, he had stayed silent and seemed to accept her words. The kiss had been a mistake. Sasuke was no longer any of her business, if he had ever been in the first place. For some reason she felt like eating ice cream and watching bad television. She would have to stop at the store on the way home.

***

Hinata was out of breath by the time she reached Naruto's office. She hadn't bothered to wait for the elevator and had taken the stairs at the fastest run she could manage. Even in her urgency, she felt paralyzing apprehension halt her limbs from knocking. The soft tap she tried didn't even make enough noise to her sensitive ears. Sakura, she had to do this for Sakura. The knock she gave felt like it bruised her knuckles and she was cradling the injured hand when Naruto threw open his office door, pencil in his mouth and pens tucked behind each ear.

"Hinata?" His face lit up in pleasure, as it did whenever someone visited him in his office. "I can't go eat with you all today, Gai has me busting my butt because I messed up on some layouts and they need to be reworked before. . . yeah?"

She had been tapping her fingers together, as if they carried some sort of charge that had to be reaffirmed with each gentle touch. Eventually she forced herself to look at him, to meet those eyes of his that carried his state of mind on the surface. The surge of fright she experienced was again only overpowered with the knowledge that something had to be done, and fast. The breath had returned to her lungs incompletely and Hinata's voice was even more breathy than usual.

"Naruto. . ." He nodded, expectant. "I went to see Sakura. And. . . she was talking to. . . I mean, I think it must have been. . . Gaara."

There were few things that could have gotten Naruto to desert his job, but that was one of them. Grabbing Hinata's hand they rushed back to accounting, while Naruto tried to get even one more scrap of information out of Hinata.

"Gaara? You're sure?" Naruto looked back at her face, flushed, and thought she looked prettier when there was a little color on her face.

Hinata tried to nod in a way to make it obvious above the general bouncing of her body on the stairs. "He kind of seemed like Sasuke. . . only scarier. And with reddish hair."

At that, Naruto managed to bark out a laugh. Sasuke would hate that description. It was typical of Hinata, though, since she rarely looked anyone in the face, to describe people by her impression of their personality. In fact, where was Sasuke in all this? If he had protected Sakura once, then he would do it again wouldn't he? Of course, having barricaded himself in his office over the past couple days might have left him out of the loop. Sasuke might not be aware that his dreaded enemy was even within fifty feet of him.

"Next time, Hinata, don't hesitate. You could totally have intercepted him yourself! I keep telling you, if you don't stand up to bullies like Gaara and Neji then you'll be miserable!" He turned his head and saw the shame etched in her face. Oh man. He had messed up again somehow. He stopped them, a door away from their destination. Putting slightly sweaty fingers under her chin, he turned her face up so he could look at her. As usual she didn't resist. "I know you're strong, Hinata. You can do it."

Strange words to hear, vague and cliché, but somehow it did make her feel better. Getting them and any attention at all from Naruto was enough to give them more impact. There he was, smiling down at her, and she wished it would never end. It was all thanks to Sakura.

"Sakura!" Hinata exclaimed and brushed past Naruto into the accounting department. He was fast enough to follow with little delay and they converged on Sakura slumped in her chair at the same time. "Sakura?" Hinata grabbed the pink haired woman's hand and she finally seemed to notice them.

"Hinata? Oh Naruto, you too? I thought you had work to do."

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "I did, but this is more important. What did he do to you?" His hands dropped to his sides in tightly bunched fists.

"Oh nothing, nothing. We just talked." She gave a humorless laugh, there was no need to clarify who 'he' was. "Just talked. . ."

Being unusually assertive, Hinata crossly demanded. "Don't try to be so strong. Tell us! We're your friends!" Then, surprised at herself, she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked back down at the floor.

The experience of being yelled at by one of the most passive people alive gave Sakura some impetus to tell them, as well as an amused feeling. The whole situation, her life, was amusing. Maybe not amusing to her, but there were several trickster deities across the world and at least one of them must have taken an interest in her.

"If you insist. . ." Sakura leaned back in her chair, stretching her stiff arms and legs. She wouldn't be leaving for lunch today since her appetite had miraculously vanished in the face of new stresses. "Gaara walked up to me, demanded we go out to dinner tonight, and I didn't have to gumption to say no. I don't think I need to go over the details." The lazy grin she gave them, mimicking Kakashi, was another front to hide the tumult of thoughts in her brain. She folded the piece of paper in her hand with contact information. "Ichiraku, eh?"

Hinata trembled in empathy for the situation Sakura had found herself in. "You. . . don't have to go."

"She's right!" Naruto hit the edge of the desk for emphasis and knocked over an empty coffee mug by mistake. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to!"

Sakura shook her head. There was no escaping this. She knew Gaara and his tenacity too well. It seemed like she could not escape her old life. This new freedom, finally feeling like herself and having personal relationships with her coworkers. . . it had been a nice dream while it lasted. If Gaara got back into her life, he would swallow it up, and it would be back to passive and overworked Sakura. As a boyfriend, it would be even worse than when he was her boss. The blitz he had run on her mind had taken her back to an earlier meek time. Where had her confidence gone? Maybe it had rolled under the desk.

"What are you doing?" Hinata watched Sakura as she thought to herself and then inexplicably began looking under her chair for something.

"Nothing, nothing. You two don't need to worry about me." She wrote something down and then grabbed a piece of tape. "If Mr. Hatake asks, I went home early because I wasn't feeling well. If I'm going to do this, I need time to prepare."

Naruto scratched his head, and realized his pens and pencil had gone. Who knew where they had landed on the run to get here. "Does it take that long to get ready for a date?"

The pink haired woman gave him a withering look. "To you it may look like dinner. But I, I am preparing for battle." She sighed and taped the sign to Kakashi's door telling of her absence. "A battle I don't think I can win." She picked up her things, not even going through her leaving ritual of assembling her outfit and checking her purse. It was a bad sign when she forgot to be obsessive compulsive. Naruto and Hinata gave each other a concerned look for her sake. Naruto's face widened into that grin she had seen him get before he did things that inevitably ended in a lecture from Neji.

"She said Ichiraku, right?" he rubbed his hands together.

Hinata picked up the coffee mug from where it had dropped and replaced it on the desk. "I think so."

"Go on and have your lunch. I'll give you a call at the end of today with the plan." He winked at her and she blushed in pleasure. "Now if you excuse me, I need to get to work on things."

"What about your work."

Naruto laughed. "It can wait! Friends are the most important thing, after all. Right?"

She nodded and wandered off in a haze after the busy fifteen minutes she had spent. Meanwhile Naruto threw open the door to Sasuke's office before yelling:

"We're going somewhere tonight, and I'm not taking no for an answer!"

***

If it hadn't been a Friday, there was no way Naruto would have had a chance to talk Sasuke into going anywhere. The blond idiot did this now and again, with varying degrees of success. Most of the time, Sasuke could care less about a movie coming out or whatever sport Naruto was currently fascinated by (it changed every year). Dinner seemed harmless enough, and Sasuke was too tired to protest hard enough to get Naruto to go away. He had slept in his office the day before to speed along his work, and getting out of the building seemed like a good idea.

He should have known better, in retrospect, than to trust Naruto when he was that excited about anything.

"No."

"Come on. We're already here. The car has been parked somewhere by some poor valet you scared half to death. They weren't going to do anything to that hunk of metal of yours."

"I don't care." Sasuke stood in the lobby, straightening his tie. He hadn't bothered to change after he had gone home, and even if a suit was part of the dress code, the rumpled state of his was certainly not good etiquette. Naruto looked like Naruto and therefore he was never strictly dress code, but somehow he got away with it.

He seemed to be looking for something. Apparently Naruto had made a reservation, or so he said. This all seemed suspicious. "Loosen up for once. You've been a wreck ever since this month began. And I know it can't all be over your moth—"

If looks could kill Naruto would have been dead many times over long ago. "You don't like fancy restaurants, and you know I don't like expensive restaurants so why are we here?"

Naruto gave a little cough and covered up his uncertainty with a loud laugh. That was a bad sign. It meant that Sasuke had already been drawn into something he didn't want to be in. The last time Naruto had done that laugh with the same strained smile, it had been before Sasuke had walked into the apartment they had been sharing at the time to find it flooded. That first week of college had been hell, and he never regretted the cost of breaking lease and finding his own place the day after.

"No no no! Please nooooo!" Naruto grabbed onto Sasuke's sleeve and stopped him from walking out. He looked frantic. "I just wanted to try something new! This place is one of the hardest to get into right now, elite you might say." Naruto knew how to push certain buttons very well, and Sasuke felt his resolve crack at the word 'elite'.

Sighing, Naruto added. "I'll even pay for dinner." This was a big deal. He must honestly want to eat here badly. Why turn down a free meal at the hippest restaurant in town?

"As soon as we're done eating, we're leaving." Sasuke made his way back inside and Naruto went limp with relief behind him.

They waited for another ten minutes before they were seated. Naruto fidgeted, bouncing his legs, picking at the seat cushions, looking around at everything. Sasuke thought it reminded him of sitting with a small child. Children bothered Sasuke. Why couldn't they act like adults? With their constant questions and annoying tendencies. . .

"Oh man, I need to go to the bathroom. Why can't they seat us faster?"

. . .they were just like Naruto.

"Mr. Uzumaki?" Naruto practically sprang up when the waiter came to fetch them. They were led through a twisting path past many plants, tables, booths, and pieces of sculpture. It didn't smell like ramen, so what could Naruto care about what this place had to offer?

They had only been seated and handed menus when Naruto jumped up to find the bathroom he sorely needed. Sasuke was free to browse the menu and maliciously chuckle at the prices. Naruto had offered to pay, and that was his own mistake. His eyes skimmed over the price of steak and fell away from the menu to instead scan the room. It looked like it was filled with well dressed young professionals and bored rich families. Food was the same everywhere, to Sasuke, so the idea of paying so much for calories that could as easily be acquired elsewhere at a far cheaper price was ludicrous. What sort of people wasted their money like this?

"Why Sasuke, what a surprise."

"Ino." He tilted his head to the side, his frown never changing from where it had been when he had been examining the people dining. "Hinata." The way he said it was less a greeting and more a passionless statement of information. How much of this was coincidence?

"I never thought he would actually get you here." She waved a hand around, indicated the interior and its contents. "Isn't it lovely? It's Chouji's second restaurant, technically, not that many people know about his first one. It only opened a few weeks ago. Still very exclusive. Naruto and Hinata owe me big for the strings I had to pull to get them reservations."

Hinata and Naruto? And why was Ino here, as her presence didn't seem to be needed once the favor was performed. Suspicion had been his first instinct when he had walked in here tonight, and he should have kept going with it. He must be really tired to get this sloppy.

"Look Hinata, Mr. Uchiha here seems to still be in the dark. I told you Naruto was too much of a coward to tell him."

Bursting onto the scene, loud as always, Naruto arrived in time to catch Ino's last statement. "I'm not a coward. I just hadn't gotten around to the details."

"Did you see them?" Ino spoke low and urgent to Naruto, who responded with equal seriousness. Sasuke, and her mocking of him, had already been put aside.

"Yeah, they're near the big blobby thing that might be a duck and a giant fern."

Ino nodded. "I know where you're talking about. I'll be right back and see if we can't be moved to a more convenient spot."

Sasuke tried not to let his temper flare up. He was running on little sleep, and even less patience. "What is going on? And you better have a good explanation for this little set up."

Confronting his long time friend, Naruto wasn't sure how to put this. "If you get up and peak around that big bush over there, then I think you'll understand."

He wasn't stupid. If the three of them were here, then Sasuke had a good idea what was going on. Even prepared by his logical conclusions, the sight that met him was so wretched that he almost bit through his cheek.

Sakura looked perfect. Her hair was styled in a way that looked artfully tousled, and the sleek black dress she wore showed off her slight form in a way more advantageous than those skirts and blouses she came to work in. Bracelets flashed, the sway of earrings caught his eye, and he felt perfectly safe in watching her openly like this because her partner across the table from her seemed to be just as taken in by her appearance.

This was a date.

This was, more specifically, Sakura's date with Gaara.

Naruto was a dead man.

It didn't take long to storm back. Sasuke was good at storming from place to place. It came naturally to him, like looking down on others or inspiring women in insane acts of adoration with his brooding good looks. Naruto was prepared, countering Sasuke with a smile and a slightly defensive stance.

"Why am I here?" He turned the force of his gaze on Hinata who promptly hid behind Naruto. "Never mind, I'm leaving."

Ino had returned to find this delightful scene in action. "Before you run away, like the coward you accused Naruto of being, I'd like to remind you that my current boyfriend runs this restaurant and the odds of you getting your car back from the valets is pretty low at the moment."

"I'll get a cab."

The flash in her eyes, the challenge, didn't escape him. A contest of wills with Ino was not something he wanted to embark on. She had a streak in her that couldn't be broken, and this situation was bringing it out for whatever reason.

"Go to the table with us, sit down, and if after fifteen minutes you still want to leave then I won't stop you."

He remembered why he didn't like Ino. Fifteen minutes. A short wait, and it would save him the trouble of trying to force the issue. He would drink some water and then leave. There had to be something microwavable at his apartment. Then he would take an aspirin and go to sleep. Fridays were fast becoming his least favorite day.

The way Ino glanced over, that expression on her face, he knew she was enjoying this far more than she was letting on. It was probably her way of punishing him for ignoring her all those months ago, when she had taken up the favorite sport of the building's female population: trying to catch him. They met eyes while sitting in their new spot, as he tried to infuse his irritation into her.

"Stop looking like you'd love to see my head on a platter as the entrée and look over there." She hissed, pointing to Sakura. Naruto and Hinata were talking to one another, not paying attention to Ino's dealings with Sasuke.

He glanced. "She looks happy enough. You don't need to baby-sit her."

"Stop acting like a spoiled brat and actually look."

Sasuke gave a long suffering look and turned his chair to get a proper look. There she was, looking as carefree as always. It just proved he was the only one she couldn't stand, even under the best of circumstances. Then something happened that caught his interest. Her hand was on the table, resting next to her water and as she laughed Gaara took the opportunity to slip his hand over hers. Sakura reacted instantly, snatching back her hand as if she had held it over a fire. She tried to cover up her sudden rejection with another laugh and a swipe through her hair to push it back from her face, as if that was what she had been intending all along.

It wasn't a big deal, but it opened Sasuke's eyes. The way her back was perfectly straight was not a sign of being relaxed or happy, and from this vantage point he could see her twisting her napkin in her lap. When Gaara was speaking she was biting her lip, and when she was speaking she followed every comment with a glance down at her plate before she looked at Gaara again. Sakura was not happy, in fact she looked miserable.

As for Gaara, if Sasuke hadn't known him so well he'd say the man didn't care about how nervous she was. That was a lie, however, because Sasuke knew what to look for and the flash of rage on Gaara's face as Sakura had stolen back her hand from him had been a clear warning sign to Sasuke. If she wasn't careful, she was going to set off the anger that Gaara had been once infamous for. He controlled it now, but she had gotten under his skin just as she had done with Sasuke and she awoke something primal and unreasonable in both of them.

This was beyond what he should be caring about; he was probably breaking at least three of her stupid rules by merely sitting here. She didn't need him here, and Gaara had threatened him if he interfered. There was no logical reason why he should monitor and protect this woman from his most notorious and long standing enemy and rival.

"Are you in or are you out?" Ino's voice was far away, drowned out by the chatter around them.

Then again, he knew he was the only one who would be able to protect her when the time came. Damn her rules, and damn him for sticking his nose where it didn't belong. He wasn't doing it for her, he rationalized, he was doing it to spite Gaara.

"I'm in."


	6. Chapter 6

The strains of classical music filtered down through the noise and chatter in the restaurant, no doubt piped in by an expensive sound system. Tonight it was classical, and she had heard from Ino that it varied greatly depending on the mood they wanted to create that night. Sometimes there were themes, but those were all mere novelties to amuse people until their food came. The food was the most important thing, or so Sakura understood Chouji's thoughts to run, and he ran a restaurant not a night club. Even Ino, who could care less about food except for its calorie count, had good things to say about the cuisine here. All this did not help Sakura, who listlessly pushed her vegetables around on her plate and tried to look like she was enjoying the evening. She knew she was failing, even though her acting skills were usually superb, because it was impossible to hide from Gaara. It wouldn't do to try.

She couldn't put her finger on why Gaara made her uneasy, and not in the exciting fluttery stomach way but the queasy and need to lie down kind of way. His eyes focused on her a little too long, and the way he spoke to her was always slightly off. The way he wouldn't smile with his teeth unless he was displeased and his tendency to lapse into long silence as if he were waiting for her to say something. . . it all added up to a person she couldn't deal with. Sakura didn't like being placed in this sort of social situation. At work, it had been fine, because she received directions from him and she was left to manage her own time and organize her tasks. It had been ideal.

Would it be any easier if she had found Gaara attractive? He exuded power, oozing it from his pores in that way that had made more than one assistant on his floor weak in the knees. Disregarding the dark circles under his eyes, they were a lovely shade of green rather like her own and it complemented his hair color superbly. He was a gorgeous demon come to life. . . and yet. . . Sakura would rather be in a relationship with Naruto than Gaara. Considering that she had friendzoned Naruto so thoroughly, it did not speak well for Gaara's chances with her tonight or ever.

"Is there something wrong with the squash?"

"Hm?" She had drifted off again. Lost in a world of her own somewhere between the fork on her plate and her dazed plastic smile.

Gaara's eyes narrowed. "You seem to be distracted this evening. There's something wrong."

How very like Gaara. He didn't ask questions, he gave you your answers. "It's the holidays. Things get so busy. . ." She didn't know where she was going with this. If she said she was thinking about her plans, then she would be saying that she hadn't been paying attention to him. If she said she hadn't been thinking about anything, then she seemed like she was spacey and had no brain, a feeling she detested. Instead, she changed the subject partially. "This was about the time when I would have been going around and collecting names for the office holiday party gift exchange. Is that still happening?"

"I assume so." Gaara had never participated. The gift exchange had only been for all the secretaries, assistants, and interns. "Then again, maybe not."

She sighed. The whole evening had been filled with probable conversation. She would ask a question and Gaara would give a muddled answer. Sakura assumed it came from living in a world where solid answers could get you cornered quickly if the other lawyer was quicker on the draw than you.

"Things aren't the same without you there." He threw it out there, casually, but it was the first sentence he had said all evening that instead of unsettling her filled her with a warm glow. At first the glow was happiness at the compliment, but then dull pink anger when she remembered whose fault it was that she wasn't working for him in the first place.

"Thanks." She stuffed a piece of her cooling entrée into her mouth and chewed in an attempt to be kept from having to answer any other questions.

At least things hadn't been totally disastrous.

Sasuke would have completely disagreed.

He watched her from his seat, brooding over the water glass that he rotated from side to side on one of its edges. The other three people at his table were talking to one another and he was happy to be excluded, particularly because he wouldn't have responded or contributed in any way to the discussion. The full force of his attention was trained on Sakura and Gaara, observant eyes noting every gesture and analyzing it to its full extent.

"Sir!" The waitress tried again to get his attention. Being well trained couldn't stand up against the Uchiha for long, and his bad temper combined with that fact that he had not ordered anything made her disinclined to be polite anymore. "Your water?"

Sasuke looked down at where a large ring of water was seeping into the tablecloth. His circular motions had grown too vicious it seemed, and the splashes were widening. "What?" His snapping reply came. "It's water. It will dry."

"Don't mind him!" Naruto tried to smooth things over with the waitress, he had a special relationship with anyone who brought him food. "We'll tip you extra for having to deal with our cranky kid over there."

Naruto calling _him_ a child? How ironic. While his statement did not bother Sasuke, the fact that he had yelled it out and followed up with a laugh did. Naruto brought attention to himself infallibly, and as Sasuke feared when he glanced over at Sakura's table, the furious green eyes of her dining companion were trained on Sasuke. He matched Gaara glare for glare, and it seemed to be with great reluctance that Gaara tore his eyes away before Sakura followed his gaze to Sasuke. It had hit the fan. And they hadn't even ordered dessert yet.

He chose not to tell his table that he had been spotted. Ino wouldn't do anything about it; she would say it was inevitable and again assert that Sakura could probably take care of herself. This whole adventure was a cheap thrill for her. Naruto would insist on storming over and saying hello, if they already knew they were there, blind to the fact that the positive of seeing Sakura would be far outweighed by the negative of further aggravating Gaara. Hinata would follow Naruto. That left Sasuke as the only sensible one in the party. He never wanted this kind of responsibility. Then again, he had chosen this for himself, this role. She had said clearly that she didn't want his help. She didn't want him.

"I'm going outside for some air." Ino nodded, being the only one who heard as Naruto continued to tell Hinata one of his inane stories. No one could do right by him tonight, it seemed, because even he noticed he was crankier than usual.

Outside it was as cold as he had expected it to be, and various people exited to stomp their feet and clap hands together before they lit their cigarettes. Sasuke hated the smell of smoke, and felt that any habit that was so expensive was a waste, but for a moment inside he had started to notice how stuffy it was, how claustrophobic. She didn't want him. . .

There was a pain in his chest. He had sat hunched over too long, it would appear, and he tried to work his arms and shoulders to loosen up again. It did no good to be so tight, because the tension would only cause headaches. He had had them before, and the whole department had suffered for weeks until he had figured out how to control them. The funny part was, it wasn't exactly the same kind of pain in his body before his muscles locked up. Sasuke was sure it was nothing to worry about.

"What are you doing here?" Gaara's voice caught him off guard. Sasuke's body clenched, and he forced it to release before he turned to face his enemy.

Gaara was standing too close, trying to impose his presence on Sasuke. Sasuke, who still was a little bit taller, tilted his head to the side and regarded him with amusement. "What do you mean?" Playing dumb was the surest way to make this situation worse, but for some reason he felt like he had something to prove.

"I expected this from Uzumaki, but seeing you here changes everything." Gaara stepped away and began to walk them to a less populated portion of the building's side to keep their conversation private, as well as to get them away from the large windows that might expose their 'discussion' to the diners inside. "I told you to stay away."

"And I'm telling you now that my friends brought me here without me knowing what was going on." This was true. That alone was enough to confuse Gaara, but it wasn't the whole truth.

Unfortunately, Gaara followed it up with the question he didn't want to answer. "Once you found out, why did you stay?" Torn from him, expressing everything about the situation that Sasuke couldn't stand, Gaara hissed. "She's my prey. Find your own toy."

Sasuke took a deep breath, feeling how cold it was and yet how warm his internal temperature. "She doesn't want you, and it kills you doesn't it?" The implication that she wanted him was standing between the two men, but one didn't want to say it and the other thought it wasn't true. "You can have anything in the world, bought or stolen, but you can't talk your way into this. . ."

"Shut up." Gaara hit the wall beside them with his palm. It wasn't a punch, but it had started out as one against the brick until he caught himself. "I don't make idle threats. I'll ruin your life if you cross me."

"What if her choice has nothing to do with me?" It would be oh so satisfying to tell Gaara to his face how much Sakura would rather see him in traction than in a relationship with her. But admitting that he was no part of her motivation for staying away from Gaara brought back that weird chest pain again.

Gaara, who had been pushed to the brink all night by continued rejection from Sakura that he would not accept, swayed on his feet. "Stay out of my. . . our lives. Or else." The air was charged, like it had been the day that it had happened. In a fit of rage, frustrated because Sasuke had been elected student body President over him (strong female voter turnout assured that), Gaara had brought up Itachi. Sasuke couldn't be President after the beating the boys had given one another, and almost got suspended, but Gaara had been in the same boat. Stalemate. "Or else. . . everyone will know about Itachi."

In seconds, Sasuke lost years as he was transported back to a time when he had always been possessed by a blinding rage at even the mere thought of his brother. The destruction he had wrought hadn't concerned him, what tormented his dreams were his father's dead body, his mother's screams, and Itachi's placidly smiling face the day before he left. Maybe it had been simply another day to everyone else, but Sasuke lost everything and the pain burned in him. When the punch landed on Gaara's eye, Sasuke had almost not even been aware that he had thrown it. Like lightening, it was so fast.

A strangled noise of excitement worked its way out of Gaara's throat and while Sasuke was still in the process of realizing what he had done, Gaara had connected solidly with his nose. Not being one to pull his punches, and having been on the brink of violence all night anyway, Gaara's fist forced stars to pop into Sasuke's vision. That had hurt, a lot.

They had jumped away from one another and taken a fighting stance when from the crowd of people looking with curiosity at the fight that had seemed to appear under their nicotine filled noses Sakura burst out.

"Stop that right now! Both of you!" She didn't seem to notice the cold, in her thin dress, and throwing herself between them she forced them to halt. Gaara looked like he was going to slap her away for interfering, but when she flinched as he raised his hand he seemed to remember how to be civilized and put it back at his side.

The two men weren't about to inform her as to what happened. It involved a lot of things between them, old and new, and both of them were smart enough to know that if Sakura knew that they had effectively been fighting over her she would take offense to being treated like an object to be won. They weren't cavemen, and the strongest male was not going to be readily embraced by the female. In fact, thanks to the glory of modernity, often the opposite was true.

"Sasuke, you're bleeding!" That was Sakura, she would sort out the facts later but right now there were certain things that had to be tended to. She always seemed to have her priorities listed, even in an emergency. Sasuke was grateful for that tendency at the moment.

"Sakura, let's go." Gaara, who would not manifest a glorious black eye for a few hours yet when the bruising finally eclipsed his dark sleepless circles, grabbed her by the arm and began to pull.

She looked at Gaara, shocked, forgetting her fear over her indignation. "But he's hurt. I have to do something." With strength Gaara hadn't thought she held in those slim arms she managed to yank her wrist from his grip. "You aren't stopping me. And this evening is over if you think you still want to prevent me from aiding him."

When Sasuke smirked, mostly to rub salt in Gaara's wounds, Sakura was quick to turn on him. "And don't think I'm not pissed of at you, because I am. If he hadn't done it first, then I might have been tempted to hit you myself." As opposed to her steely tones when she had spoken to Gaara, Sakura's voice had sounded more like a scolding than truly furious temper.

"This isn't the end, Sasuke." Gaara would retreat for this instance, when he had been painted at the bad guy compared to the profusely bleeding man in front of him. "Sakura, I shall talk to you later about tonight. There are circumstances. . ." For a second, his eyes pled with her to understand, to take his side, but the weakness was gone in a flash and Gaara disappeared into the crowd that was already losing interest in the scene now that there was no more violence.

Sasuke put a hand under his aching nose. It came away smeared with blood. It didn't feel that bad, no worse than walking into a door, but Sakura was fussing over him as if he had something life threatening happen to him.

While Sakura pulled a handkerchief out of her purse to stem the tide of blood washing out of Sasuke's nose, Sakura reflected on how her timing could have been better. When she had been waiting for Gaara to get back from the restroom, Sakura had had the time to look around a little. With her presence of mind and powers of observation back out of the depressing aura that Gaara brought her, she spotted Naruto and Ino immediately.

Naturally, she had thrown down her napkin in a fit and stormed over, demanding to know why they were here. Naruto tried to stutter out something about hearing it was a nice restaurant from someone while Hinata blushed and did that trick that only she could manage of disappearing in plain sight. Ino, bold as usual, felt no remorse for spying on her. It was when Naruto mentioned how Sasuke had been gone for a while outside that Sakura finally connected in her brain that the direction Gaara had left in had not been that of the bathrooms. She rushed out without explaining anything to her friends and forgetting all about how angry she was supposed to be.

"Put your head back. Hold this." She put the now bloody handkerchief to Sasuke's nose and forced him to staunch the bleeding with it. "Let's go. I'll get a cab for us."

Sasuke tried to look up and still obviously shake his head. "I dod ned a cab. I drobe."

"Well, you aren't driving like this. Besides, I think I need to leave right now." She looked back at the restaurant where Gaara and her friends were still all couched in. Yes, there were a lot of situations in that location that she didn't want to cope with. Sasuke bleeding because of a curious argument was a far more personally important option to explore this evening. She didn't care about her coat. She'd go get it later. Oh, and speaking of the coat. . .

"Look, I'm cold." Sakura rubbed her bare arms. "We're going and you aren't arguing. I'm sure they'll take good care of your car."

"My code. . ."

"No! No time for coats. We're leaving right now, fixing up your face, and then you're going to tell me a pretty fabulous story because it would have to be to keep me from finishing what Gaara started."

Sasuke wanted to fight her more on this, but Sakura had entered a mood that couldn't be reasoned with. It was as if all the passivity of the date had been bottling up her actual personality and now it was bursting out with a vengeance. This was good, to see her with some life in her, cheeks red and that usual look in her eyes as if he were the worst thing that she had ever had happen to her or possibly the best. For once she was smiling at him, too, in the way she smiled at all of her friends. It must be something like the Florence Nightingale effect. If he hadn't been bleeding she would have cursed him out and left him standing here to take care of himself.

A flash of gaudy yellow later, Sasuke and Sakura were sharing a cab. It didn't smell particularly savory, and the seat made a weird squelching noise, but Sasuke was grateful to be out of the cold and putting distance between he and Gaara. He was about to put his head down, gushing blood be damned, and give his address when Sakura jumped him and gave hers to the bored looking driver. Apparently bleeding men with pretty women in the back of a cab wasn't even enough to raise his eyebrow.

Sakura leaned back on the seat with a sigh and checked on Sasuke again.

"I think I have some gauze at my apartment, and some basic medical supplies. I'll take a look at it more thoroughly when we get someplace. . . cleaner."

Sasuke took a breath through his mouth. It was odd that he felt like he wasn't getting enough oxygen. "Why are you qualified?" He got it out, though it sounded as stupidly nasal to him as it did to her. At least she didn't laugh. Sasuke didn't think he could take any more shame this evening.

"While I'm not in med school yet, I think I know a trick or two about treating a simple injury like this." She smiled to herself. Being a doctor was in her blood. Sasuke had the dubious pleasure of being one of her first patients, in a way, since she had been seriously studying medicine. Informally, true, but seriously.

The sight of her with a huge textbook before her came back to his mind's eye. So it wasn't a hobby, it was her future career path. He felt a prick of admiration for her, glad that someone as obviously smart and capable as she was had not consigned herself to a lifetime of filing papers and typing reports. Not that she wouldn't have plenty of paperwork to go through if she did become a doctor, or whatever it was she wanted to be in the medical field. He mused on how much it would cost to go to medical school in the current economy and soon enough felt her pressing at his side.

"This is it! Let's go." Sakura shoved some money at the driver and hustled Sasuke into her building. "Don't expect much. Things are always a mess, and I'm so tired when I get home. . . you know how it is when you live alone."

Sasuke reflected that he knew more about living alone than most people, including Sakura. On the third floor, eight doors away from the elevator, was Sakura's apartment and the inside surprised him. It was the night for that, it seemed.

"Go ahead and sit down, I'll get the stuff out of the bathroom." She put her purse down by the door and strode back down a short hallway and out of his sight.

He looked around, noting that despite her claim that it was a mess here that the living space was nearly as pristine as his own. There was a small mess around the spot on the couch where she must sit to watch TV, but nowhere else in the room looked lived in. It wasn't dusty like his apartment, too. Another difference were the shelves lining her walls piled with books. It wasn't just medical texts that graced these, he noted at he read some titles at random, but history, philosophy, general science, biography, literature, and. . . a line of books with improbably curly writing on the sides on the bottom shelf. He pulled out one of them and saw a woman with a heaving bosom falling into the arms of a man whose chest alone probably outweighed Sasuke.

"I think you should come back here, I don't want to move the whole chest of supplies and it's easier to do it in the bathroom anyway!"

Sakura's voice startled him, forcing him to somewhat guiltily drop the romance novel he had been disdainfully examining. The apartment was small and it was easy to wander back and locate the bathroom. Sakura was bent over something in her dress and Sasuke quelled a flash of an impulse to pinch her on her bottom to see how she'd react. Being in her apartment made him feel giddy. Or maybe it was blood loss.

"This should do the trick. Oh!" She stood up and almost ran into him in the small bathroom. "Come and sit down here, and I'll get you fixed up." Sasuke sat on the toilet, as she asked, and her gentle hands took her hopelessly bloody handkerchief from him and began to dab at him with some sort of cold liquid.

They spent a few minutes in companionable silence while she did her job and Sasuke tried to figure out what he was going to tell her when the questions began. Sakura was going to want to know things, and Sasuke didn't want to be the one to tell her. Then again, he liked the idea of Gaara saying anything to her even less and he couldn't count on that bastard to say nothing instead of twisting the truth to fit what he wanted to be true. Gaara would do anything to gain an advantage with Sakura, and Sasuke wasn't going to let that happen.

"Other than a particularly purple looking and ugly nose, you're as good as new. You'll have to be kind to it, and sleep on your back for a few nights to keep from pressing on it, but I don't think you broke anything. It looked so bad at first. . . ." She began to wring out the blood from the handkerchief in the sink and she gave him another smile, the real kind. Bedraggled, tired, . . . "Now tell me why Gaara punched you.". . . and cranky, she was still beautiful. Sasuke tried to kill that thought before it grew wings.

Sasuke tried to stall. "Can't we go somewhere else first?"

"And have you possibly bleed on my carpets? Not likely. The bathroom is good enough." At least she turned back to the sink to tend to her rinsing. The full impact of those mossy eyes of hers was making him feel like a little boy crying in the emergency room again. Damn Gaara, bringing up all those memories. . . "I'm waiting."

"Since you insist," Sasuke grumbled. "Naruto set me up tonight. I never would have been there otherwise."

Her shoulders sagged and then righted themselves. "Oh."

"When I went outside, Gaara followed. We. . . have some bad blood between us."

"You think?" She said sarcastically. Turning to face him, her eyes clouded with more worry than malevolence, she asked him again. "Please, would you tell me?"

That tone of voice, her sad face, the proximity of her body in this small room, it all combined to combust something in him. "I didn't want him to use you." Sakura went still, eyes far away as if screaming an inner monologue in response to his words. "Gaara's dangerous. You don't know how dangerous."

She smiled, but not in a happy way, and held up her arm. The bruises there could not just have been from the one time he had grabbed her arm earlier. "I know. He doesn't know how to control himself, I think, because no one has ever encouraged him to. I'm sure he isn't aware he hurt me. He was just trying to get my attention. . ."

Sasuke stood to confront her. It felt like a fire had been lit under him when he saw her bruised flesh. He had failed, even in a small way, to keep Gaara from hurting her. Belatedly, he wondered when this had become less about Gaara and more about Sakura.

"You shouldn't see him anymore. I'll help you." Nervousness fluttered in his empty stomach. No one had ever had to count on him before. Even offering was unprecedented for him. It wasn't only blood loss and lack of food that was making him act like this. Again, he cut off his thoughts before he could find anything deeper than that. Sakura was important. Sakura needed protection.

"Well, that's nice of you, Sasuke." She didn't want to take him seriously. The punch must have addled his brains. "What if he wants to go out again?"

Sasuke frowned deeply. "Say you have work at the office and it isn't possible to get away. I can arrange things with Kakashi."

"What if he wants to go out on a weekend?"

"Make plans with Ino or Hinata or whoever," He was coming to realize that there was actually very little he would have to do to protect her. Unless Gaara directly showed up, Sasuke didn't have much of a role. Fine with him. He was starting to feel too attached to her anyway.

"And what about Christmas, huh? What if he wants to spend the holiday with me, are you going to take me with you instead? I can't make excuses forever. . ."

Sasuke hadn't heard her last sentence and was seriously considering her words. "It wouldn't be possible. Then again, all I do is visit my mother and she couldn't care less."

"That's a little harsh." Sakura felt like the mood had been lightening. He must be joking with her. Why would Sasuke feel any sort of sense of responsibility to her? "I'm sure your mother cares."

He shrugged. In a low tone he added almost to himself, "Why would she? She's been in a coma since I was nine."


	7. Chapter 7

Sasuke jolted himself into a sitting position. The small bed creaked under him as he moved his legs to the side and faced down at the cold uncarpeted floor. The shadows under the shifting lights did nothing to ease his mind even if they engaged his senses. His rapid heartbeat pounded in his brain, drowning out the noises of the occasional late night car. It had been years since he had been awakened like this, sweat pouring from his body, and his mind buzzing with images.

With a groan he tried to shake the fading sights and sounds of his dream out of his mind's eye. They seemed so real. Shockingly, disturbingly real. Sasuke couldn't help but wish, just a little bit, that the dream had been his usual nightmare. That one he has memorized:

He's small again, small enough that the world looks like it was sized for a race he's not part of. Elementary school is the only place that feels right, then, because it is big life in miniature. Coming home, he knows every tree on the way and he counts them softly to himself. It bleeds into the math he had done that day in class. Math is comforting, associated with parental praise. He and his parents live in an idyllic suburb, built just far enough between old and new that the houses don't all look the same even if they feel the same. The dream jumps at the same place, with his small hand turning the handle to come in the back door. No one uses the front door, only guests and his older brother.

Everything is quiet, and there is a tea kettle whistling. Sasuke yells for his mother, but she doesn't seem to hear. The sound is grating, painful, and he wishes that she would come and fix it. To his responsible child's mind, he knows he shouldn't touch the stove, but he can see and reach the dials to turn the burner off and he does that much. The whistling continues, but as he walks into the house it dies down, following him.

"Mom!" his child's voice is unsure but still demanding.

Through the kitchen, dining room, living room. . . he drops his book bag somewhere and doesn't think about it. There is homework to do, but he has time to play before his mother asks him about it and he takes to it dutifully. His father might check it later, glancing at the page and knowing exactly where the mistakes are without a second thought. Sasuke wishes he was already at that level. They always comment on how his brother could do this kind of work on entering school. Sasuke feels uncomfortable when they say this but instead of complaining he works harder for their acknowledgement.

Here is where the dream slows down. Every iteration of this dream it becomes harder to approach his father's study and makeshift filing room. He walks through molasses, helpless to stop what he half knows he will find. Tears already burn in his eyes, but they aren't his eyes but the eyes of the Sasuke of the present who cannot turn away from the macabre scene in front of him. The half open door has not been shut, but then it couldn't be with that foot in the way. . .

Inside of this room is the stuff of real life nightmares. Blood all over the wall, splattered from the gunshot. Slumped over the desk, blood dripping off the edge, his father's dead body looms large in Sasuke's child mind. Too choked by his fear to scream, he steps forward. The foot blocking the door from closing belongs to his mother, her head is trickling blood from where it collided with the shaped marble block on which Sasuke and his brother used to play chess. The pieces are all over the floor now. She is motionless, and he shakes her while screaming for her to wake up.

The noise attracts his brother, Sasuke didn't even hear the front door open and close. Why would he, when he was screaming himself hoarse?

"Sasuke be quiet." His brother slides through the room, the only bit of sanity Sasuke can imagine there being left in his small world. Itachi will take care of everything somehow. Itachi will undo it. Itachi is a genius, invincible, impervious to change.

The note Itachi picks out of their father's hand interests him vaguely. He smiles, then frowns, then lets it drift to the ground. Sasuke watches, his hands on his mother's shoulders and tears drying on his round child's cheeks.

"Help me." Sasuke's plaintive whine breaks the silence again, followed by his soft sob.

Itachi looks at Sasuke, cold eyes examining the situation, calculating. He was a genius at math, Sasuke had often been told, brilliant and efficient and cold. Itachi's eyes burn into Sasuke's and after long minutes he walks out of the room.

Desperate, Sasuke follows. "Where are you going?"

"Good-bye Sasuke."

"What?" He doesn't understand, but the dreamer does and anger turns the white living room walls red. This is hell.

Then the door closes with a hitch.

Sasuke wakes up.

Only later, when he called 911 and the ambulance came did he find out that his mother was alive but that the blow to her head was a serious one. Years from that first horrible day in the hospital, when she still hadn't awakened, he came to an acceptance about the fact that he was an orphan. Kakashi, a distant cousin on his mother's side, and the only relative who was willing to deal with the problem child who had passed from family to family, had never been a complete replacement. Kakashi was more an uncle than a father.

Itachi. The cause of it all. The one who had embezzled the funds from his father's business and ruined not only the Uchiha family name but had driven at least four other moderately sized businesses that had counted on them into bankruptcy. Only the life insurance had saved them, from his father's suicide, and that had largely gone to paying for his mother's exorbitant hospital bills.

But Sasuke would get revenge on the sibling who ruined his life and the lives of so many others. The private investigators he had hired, and there had been many over the years, would find him someday. Sasuke's money, if he had enough of it, would get him an address instead of another dead end.

And the day he found Itachi would be the day he killed him.

These thoughts were unpleasant, painful, and entirely what he would rather focus on because it was not that dream, in fact, that had woken him up all in a sweat.

Sakura's body couldn't look like that under those skirts and blouses of hers. Then again, his mind was prone to a degree of realism that was startling and that dress of hers had dipped so low on her back. All that skin had dazzled him, smooth and soft looking. His imagination had run away with him. This was a hormonal cycle he was going through. This was stress from the holidays. There was no way he had had a dream about illicit erotic adventures with Sakura Haruno because that's what he wanted. Sasuke had spent years getting rid of excess wants and needs.

If he was lusting after someone like her then it must have been a long time since. . . ok it had been a very long time in general but that had never been a problem before. He had run the gamut of his hormones in record speed and buried under the brunt of his anger at his brother and the world. What girls there had been were blips on his radar. They had been discarded when they tried to get too comfortable in his life. Once he had been taken on in Konoha Inc. women had become an annoying side effect of having a pretty face. They got in the way. They were not what he wanted.

But Sakura wasn't just any woman.

Sakura was Naruto's crush, Gaara's object of obsession, and everyone's friend. Hell, even the office holiday party—a huge event that had been planned weeks in advance for all the departments—was something she had managed to get involved in. Sakura was useful. The way she twisted into people's lives was insidious. Gaara had intimated that he wanted her partially for her mental power, and though she wasn't a people person exactly she certainly had a good mind for details and organization. People trusted her. Sasuke trusted her.

He had to trust her, otherwise he wouldn't have made a damn fool of himself sitting in her bathroom oozing blood and practically spilling his life out to her while she leaned against a sink less than three feet away from him.

That was an exaggeration, as once he had mentioned his mother he had clammed up. It had been a tactical retreat mentally if not physically.

***

"Um. I. . ." Sakura gaped like a fish at Sasuke's absolutely emotionless delivery of such shocking information. What was she supposed to say? 'Sorry' didn't seem to cover it. He looked so strangely vulnerable and proud at the same time. Naruto's words to her earlier rang in her head and drowned out the buzzing feeling in the back of her mind that she was supposed to be mad at him for something. Ah yes, fighting with Gaara. Well, a tragic past trumped a silly fight any day to her poor sensitive heart.

"Look, you will not see him again and I'll do what I have to. . ." He towered over her, then wavered on his feet. Days of stress, of lack of sleep, of overwork and emotional confrontation were catching up to him. Such a display of weakness upset him and he clutched at the counter behind her, partially pinning her to the sink. Her hands grasped his waist, helping to steady his body.

Sakura made a sound in the back of her throat, an admonition. "You don't take good care of yourself, do you?" Questions were buzzing in her head, but Sasuke was not the type to offer answers so she held her tongue. He seemed to be so helpless right now. The perfect time to strike, a voice crowed in her head.

"Humph." Sasuke didn't want to dignify that assessment with a response. Her words were of little consequence to him when her body was pressed so tightly against his that he could feel her soft curves cushioning him. For a second he almost let down in front of her, almost let his head rest on her shoulder and his lips press against her bare neck. Then, he saw himself in the mirror. His vanity pricked him, and he suddenly didn't want to be in her presence anymore or let her see his bruised face.

"Stay here tonight. The couch folds out into a bed. Not the most comfortable of beds, but. . ." She wasn't sure why she wanted to reach out to him. Part of it was that she didn't want to spend another morning waking up to her empty apartment, but part of it included a rough thrilling impulse that she shoved down hard to the back of her consciousness. She wasn't that kind of girl. Then again, she seemed to want to be that kind of girl for Sasuke.

"Why would I do that?" His words were harsh and dismissive, but he did not draw away from her partial embrace. Her body was so warm, so pliant. Would it be so bad to stay. . .?

She had been insane to even offer. "You're right. Why would you do that." The usual animosity in her voice had returned and the moment had been shattered. Less gently than she had intended, she pushed at his shoulders and prompted him to stand. "I'll call you a cab."

The bathroom was much roomier without her in it, but also colder and not the kind of cold measured by thermometers. Sasuke swore under his breath. He had failed again, and he wasn't entirely sure how it had happened. At some point you had to throw in the towel, you had to raise the white flag and admit that maybe you weren't as smart and strong and aloof as you thought you had been. The blood caked on his face and the bruising all around his nose were proof enough to him that he was in deeper than he had cared admit to before. It didn't mean he had to like it.

He opened the medicine cabinet rather than continue to examine his reflection. New and interesting snooping lay this way, however, distracting him. Everything was arranged so neatly, beauty products on one shelf, cold and flu medicines on another, and on the bottom. . . Sasuke shut the cupboard quickly. Some things a guy just didn't need to think about.

***

"Let me in loser, its cold out here!" Naruto's annoying voice came over the scratchy speaker system. Naruto had buzzed him eight times before Sasuke had bothered to get off of his couch.

No one should have to deal with a battered face, a battered ego, and Naruto all in the same day. If only Sasuke could work seven days a week. It was going to bad enough when he went in on Monday and everyone saw him like this.

"I'm dying of frostbite! Sasuke, you're a jerk and an as—"

_BUZZ_

It was easier to let him in than to fight him today. He was going to go get Sasuke's car for him today after all, still at the restaurant parking lot and safe thanks to a good word from Ino. Damn, now he owed her. And that woman would use it at the worst time, knowing her. Probably make him do her taxes for free this year, or something equally annoying. Sasuke's fondness for his car, the only thing he had been willing to part with any of his precious revenge money for, was a well known feature of the taciturn man. Ino would know and would expect him to be properly grateful.

The knock at the door was too loud. Everything about Naruto was too loud. Even his clothes, it seemed, as the bright orange winter coat burned its way into Sasuke's retina upon opening the door.

"Hey! Holy. . . You look like you got hit by a truck!"

Sasuke shoved the keys at Naruto and went back to lying down on his couch. "Don't wreck my car or I'll kill you."

"Seriously, I mean, I saw Gaara when he came back in after the fight and he looked pretty pissed but not messed up. I totally thought that you won but obviously. . ."

"Why are you still here?"

Naruto shuffled over to the kitchen and began to rifle through the contents of the fridge. This always happened. If the boy wasn't eating he was talking. Sasuke wished suddenly that he kept more food in his apartment.

"You're like a machine, not even any milk or anything. You can't live off of condiments and old cheese. . ." Naruto slammed the fridge door shut and leaned over the open counter that exposed the living room area to the kitchen area. "So, did the lovely Sakura nurse you back to health? Heal all your wounds? Put you to bed and. . ."

Sasuke didn't like the suggestive tone Naruto was taking. "You can shut up before I give you a face to match mine."

"I dunno. If I get to be nursed by Sakura, I might just go for it." Naruto put his hands behind his head as he circled out of the kitchen leaned over the couch to look Sasuke in the face. "Admit it, you love her. You want to marry her and give her like a zillion kids." He followed his purposefully childish comment with a laugh.

Then the laugh died. "That's supposed to be the part when you say 'you're an idiot' and at least appear to disagree with me." Naruto's expressive face scrunched up into a sour frown. "Sasuke. . . Not fair! I saw her first!"

"You're leaping to conclusions, idiot." Then, he added without thinking. "And I talked to her first." He groaned, wishing he had let the subject drop without getting like this. Naruto brought out his competitive side, rather like Gaara did but with less murderous intent.

"Nope! You considered it! Can't take it back now." Naruto crashed onto Sasuke's feet rather than asking to sit on the couch with him. He knew Sasuke would have refused. The joggling forced Sasuke to hit the armrest with the back of his head and it caused an answered ache in his nose. Damn but it hurt. "She gets under your skin, doesn't she? I wouldn't mind to get under—"

Sasuke sat up and smacked Naruto on the back of the head. Not too hard, but hard enough to get his joking friend to stop with his annoying lines of thought. He didn't love her. He was. . . _involved_. . . with her. It was friendly. The time they had spent in the bathroom, until that last part, had been kind of friendly. And the hug she had given him when he had left her apartment had been surprising but not unwelcome. That was friendly too.

_That dream you had was very friendly,_ a voice in the back of his head snickered.

"Hinata said that you wouldn't last long. She seems to think that Sakura is about the most glorious person on the face of the planet, and I have to say I agree. Hinata told me about how she managed to convince Kakashi to come to an appointment on time for once, and how Tsunade said it must be one of the signs of the apocalypse. . ."

"Then why don't you go see Hinata and talk about her, since that seems to be all you're good for today." Sasuke grumped. Everyone was closer to her than he was. She had a better relationship with his adoptive father after a little more than two weeks than Sasuke even had after nearly two decades. That he was feeling jealous wasn't something he was willing to admit to himself yet, but the bilious green was tangibly tainting his mind.

Naruto stuck out his tongue and twirled the keys on one finger. "Maybe I will." He walked over to the door and paused on the threshold to put on a serious expression. "You're the most stubborn person I know Sasuke. Don't mess this up."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"She's worth it, Sasuke. You're a lucky bastard." Naruto disappeared, keys in hand, and Sasuke forgot to give one last parting comment about the safety of his beloved car as new thoughts chugged their way through his logical and analytical brain.

Lucky, Naruto said, and Sasuke snorted. He was lucky? Looking around his dim, bare apartment he wished he had had last night back. What would have been the worst thing that could have happened? He would have slept poorly on that couch of hers and then they would have had uncomfortable conversation over breakfast (he usually only had a cup of black coffee and some toast) and she would have tried to get more information out of him about his family. The curiosity had burned hot in her last night after he mentioned his mother. It sounded preferable to waking up in a sweat and not getting back to sleep, instead opting to listen to infomercials while his nose throbbed.

His mother. . .

The visit. . .

He tightened his lips, thinking, steeling his resolve. Sasuke was a man of his word and he would take her with him to visit his mother. Maybe he would finally accept Kakashi's long standing but unspoken invitation to have dinner on Christmas. The man didn't have any family he spoke to anymore except for Sasuke. She would like that. Dinner wouldn't be the two men sitting in silence and contemplating microwave turkey meals if she was there. That's why he had given up on the dinners years ago, they had been a depressing waste of time.

Sakura complemented him. That's what it was. That's how she got her in. She found the thing that someone couldn't do for themselves and then she did it for you without asking or judging. Sasuke, who felt like he needed nothing, naturally would be threatened by her. She exposed his weak spots, even if he had never considered them weak spots. Sakura had become his weak spot.

No, he argued to himself as he got up and headed towards the kitchen to see if his refrigerator was really as bare as Naruto had claimed, she was his obligation. An obligation was something that you didn't want, and he knew that he didn't want her because he had never wanted anyone in the past like he wanted. . . damn. He swore again. He was swearing a lot today.

It was even more galling that Naruto had been right. Sasuke threw out the moldy piece of cheddar and sat down to wait for Naruto to get back with his car so he could go to the grocery store. Sakura's comment last night about him not taking care of himself still stung. He'd prove her wrong. He didn't need her.

A stray thread of compassion for Gaara tapped at the back of his mind. So this is how he had been caught. Like Naruto had said, she got under your skin, crawled under your defenses. She was perceptive without knowing it, then ruthless. With all that, Sasuke thought as he gently rubbed at his nose, you'd think she wouldn't need protection from Gaara. It was more like Gaara needed protection from Sakura.

***

"Take one."

"What?" Shino never came into Sasuke's office unless there was a project so large the whole department had to work on it. The subtle but respectful rivalry they had going over who would get the next promotion was enough to keep both men working as individually as possible. It was easy to forget that Shino was even there some days.

"You have to draw a name. It was her idea." There was no need to specify who 'she' was. Who else would take the initiative to organize a gift exchange three days before Christmas? She got too excited about the holidays, or so Sasuke assumed judging from how she had been wearing green and red and a Santa hat all week to work. Not that he had really been examining her closely. No. He was just observant. Really.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Shino shrugged. "Why not?" And it had been that easy. She practically had disciples spreading her holiday cheer, even if Shino was a rather indifferent one. He was probably the only one who would be fearless enough to ask Sasuke participate. It galled him a little that she hadn't come herself.

"Tell her I refuse." That would teach her for using a third party in any of her dealings with him.

With a nod, Aburame retreated to continue his distribution of names. If Sasuke wanted to be a humbug then that was his choice.

Sakura was chewing on the end of a mechanical pencil, sitting at her desk, and answering questions from people panicking about everything from the usual Kakashi troubles to the many planning committees she had become part of. At the moment frantic decorating was happening. At least eight different men and women had been wrangled in as 'volunteers' by her to participate in her plans. It may be an accounting department, she had said, but it doesn't need to look like one. However, the mismatched and gaudy decorations were starting to make it look like a Christmas themed window display executed by three year olds. The pre-school look was not the classy and sedate sort of decorations she used to arrange to be hung in the law office, but in its own way this had far more character and fun to it.

Kakashi was certainly surprised. So surprised that he gave her almost a day's worth of extra work because she had so much free time to do all these decorations. It was at that point she went pleading to Shino to help her. The mountain had miraculously come to Muhammad and now the stoic accountant was gathering support for the gift exchange while she continued to multitask at an insane rate. She'd have to pull a Sasuke today and not take a lunch.

Speaking of Sasuke. . . he was acting weird. Weird for Sasuke meant that he was acting unpredictable. He had been so harsh upon coming back on Monday and confronting the shocked stares of people taking in his battered appearance that he had been an extra harsh task master. Sakura thought that they would have to hire a therapist just to deal with all of the people Sasuke had mentally crushed in that first day alone. Then, the next day, she had caught him smiling at her.

It was Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha, and he was smiling. The giddy girl in her heart did a backflip when she spotted him. His smile was. . . sexy. It wasn't cute like Naruto's, and it wasn't sly like Kakashi's or sinister like Gaara's. Sasuke's smile had something hidden behind it, a promise, and she had almost had the guts to get up and talk to him about it when he had suddenly flashed back into the devil he had been that week and she decided to wait for another time to talk to him. She had assumed all his talk to her about protecting her and other such nonsense was the product of a fevered mind and too many hits to the head.

There was more weirdness. Kakashi slipped her a note in with her piles of work asking if she had any food allergies. It was a strange question. Maybe he was going to give her a fruitcake for Christmas so something along those lines. He was overloaded with sweets, gifts from women all over the building, as it was so if he passed on some of those she wouldn't be surprised.

Then Sasuke had walked up and demanded to know if her family lived close to her. She had said no and he had nodded and walked off, having decided something in his mind that he didn't see fit to share with her. All of this was getting too suspicious. She was ready to brave his bad mood if she had the slightest chance of enlightenment, but then someone had rushed over screaming about how some lights had caught fire and she was wrapped up in more work and more decorating before she knew it.

It was the end of the day and she was crashed down into a chair. Kakashi had appeared to pick up notes she had typed for him. It looked like a grocery list.

"Ah good. I can never seem to read my own handwriting by the time I get to the store. . ."

It was a grocery list. She felt used.

"Is there anything you want in particular?" He spoke low, leaning in to ask her with a smile.

Sakura's mind went blank. "What do you mean?"

"I get guests so rarely. . ." Kakashi waved a hand and stood up again. "Then again, I'm sure you're not as picky as he is. Have a good night, Sakura."

"Good night." Her automatic response allowed him the time he needed to escape and her internal questions remained unanswered. Frustrating. And why did she have a feeling that she had Sasuke again to blame for her turmoil?

Shino was about to leave as well and passed her the list of who drew who drew what names. She hadn't expected a list, but Shino was too thorough to allow such an oversight. Scanning it quickly as he stood over her, she gave him her profuse thanks and watched as a slow smile edged at his mouth.

"Was there anyone you didn't get to?"

He shook his head.

"That's good."

"Only you and Uchiha aren't on the list."

"That's. . . what? Why isn't he on the list?" She didn't want to be on the list because she had never been on the list. In a way she had always felt like an outsider wherever she had worker. A planner was rarely part of activities. Hosts managed guests, they had to be on a different plane of thinking and acting. It was part of her life, and she was used to it. Sasuke was merely individualistic and irritating, he had no excuse.

Shino seemed to be waiting for a cue. Sakura jumped up on tired feet and gave him a quick hug. "You were great, Shino. I couldn't have done it without you. Don't you worry about Sasuke, I've got unfinished business with him anyway."

Sakura stuffed the list into the folder full of lists that she had been keeping about the nearing holiday party.

"Come the holiday party," She said, a glint of mischief in her eyes, "Sasuke's getting his."


	8. Chapter 8

“Ho Ho HO!”

Jiraiya laughed all the louder because Tsunade would catch him soon and spoil his fun. She hadn’t gotten near drunk enough yet to allow him to encourage women to come sit on his lap and tell ‘Santa’ what they wanted for Christmas. It was only a matter of time though, once the sake hit and the noble president of Konoha Inc. was on her buzz, and then. . . in that glorious moment the vice president would start having his way. You could read the eagerness in his eyes, or the vague desperation.

With a sigh Sakura watched the white haired executive pass by and tried to get into the bowl of egg nog standing beside her in a clear punch bowl on the long and low tables. Someone had spiked it already, to her dismay, but she discovered the bowl next to it to be untainted so she partook liberally. It was thick, spicy sweet, and it tasted expensive. Tsunade wasn’t a stingy person when it came to parties, it seemed, and Sakura wondered how much the catering alone had cost to turn the entire downstairs lobby of the office building into a winter wonderland. Everything sparkled. Sakura wished she had brought sunglasses to avoid the glare and those annoying trailing spots in her eyes where the lights left their ghosts.

A wave at the corner of her eye attracted her attention and Sakura slipped through the crowds of milling people to find Hinata standing with two other people, both men she had not seen before. The human resources offices were not someplace Sakura had been since she had been hired a little over three weeks ago, and Hinata’s previous warnings about her strange coworkers had been another good reason to stay away. Sakura had enough problems in accounting, she didn’t need more odd personalities in the HR department. 

One of the men next to Hinata looked cross, his light eyes evaluating her and finding her obviously lacking. The other. . . oh lordy. It was the same sad expression Naruto gave her when he thought she wasn’t looking at him that this tall slender man wore. Naruto had fallen into an easy routine with Sakura, with both of them understanding that she was never going to go out with him no matter how he showered her with attention. Just when she had gotten comfortable she had to deal with another one. Why couldn’t this have happened to her in middle school when she could have handled it with her usual blunt refusals? Adulthood had brought only slightly more tact, but much greater social discomfort.

“Hinata, why don’t you introduce me to your friends.” Sakura understood that Hinata had been looking for an escape from these people, for whatever reason, and she was willing to throw herself to the wolves for her friend’s sake.

The woman quivered with relief and appreciation, and stammered out something like an introduction. “Sakura, this is Lee and this is. . . Neji. Sakura works for Kakashi as his assistant in accounting. She helped organize things this evening.”

“Well, I didn’t do too much. . .”

“Of course you didn’t, preparations had been made weeks ago. You probably just supervised without providing any real contribution.” The one that Hinata had identified as Neji had already made her black list with that one statement. So this was Neji. “So you’re that Sakura. . .” Neji smiled humorlessly and she tried not to ‘spill’ her eggnog violently into his face. Sakura did not appreciate being referred to as if she were a thing.

“Everyone seems to know you but me.” The man with the black hair in an unfortunate bowl cut that Hinata had called Lee gave Sakura an oddly attractive smile. He had very nice teeth, she noted, trying to find something complementary about him. “But now that I’ve met you I’m sure we’ll get along well. It’s destiny.”

Oh gag. Sakura wasn’t in the mood to entertain the slightly unwelcome approaches of yet another suitor. She had enough problems with romantic attachments she didn’t want, both others’ and her own. Hinata had only ever said good things about Lee, but Sakura knew that as nice as he was, there was still no spark. There had to be a spark, and she wouldn’t stand for anything less. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t had a date in. . .

Moving on.

“How do you know about me?” Sakura directed her question at the unpleasant one. At least Neji didn’t look like he was about to go down on one knee in front of her and declare his everlasting love. Hinata fidgeted to the side of them. Apparently she thought Sakura’s idea of engaging Neji in conversation was a bad one.

The man sipped at his drink and smirked so slightly she wasn’t sure if he had changed his expression or if it was a trick of the light. “Whatever you did to Uchiha. . . I had expected you to be prettier.” The evil efficiency expert gave her a look up and down, and Sakura saw red. She was so angry she forgot to pursue that intriguing reference to Sasuke.

This was an improvement to fending off bad pickup lines how?

“That was cruel of you, Neji. Sakura is as beautiful as the flower she was named for.” 

They were vying for exploding her brain, it seemed. Maybe she should have gotten the spiked eggnog after all. Hinata was waving again and it was with more than a little relief that Sakura spotted Naruto blasting his way through the crowds to get to their circle of people. Rather like Jiraiya, Naruto had on a lot of red, but without the Santa hat and the lecherous grin he managed to make it look festive rather than perverted. Neji frowned as Naruto approached. Oh yes, Sakura remembered, they had quite a bit of bad blood in between them. She was interested in how this encounter was going to play out. Anything to take the focus off of her, honestly, was welcome. Hinata had to deal with those two every day, as their boss no less? 

“Hinata!” Naruto gave Hinata a hug, his cheeks glowing the pink of someone who hadn’t quite had enough alcohol to be excused of insensible behavior. The Hyuuga girl blushed darkly. “Sakura!” It was gratifying that Naruto had gravitated to Hinata and only saw her second, but there was also the latent sting of resentment at being second. Sakura had always liked being the best even as she modestly claimed that it was not something she had sought for herself. Anyone who knew her knew she worked hard for everything she had, and the modesty she sometimes affected was partially false.

“Still working here? They must be desperate if they felt the need to keep you on in the advertising department.” Neji didn’t deliver his insult to Naruto with bite so much as with the artful swipe of sophisticated callousness.

“I made sure to recommend to the advertising director that he be recognized for all his good work recently, actually. Gai and I talk frequently, as you know.” Lee spoke up when Naruto, for once, decided to take the high road and not respond to Neji’s barb. It was more likely that he hadn’t heard it. Regardless, Naruto was ignoring both Lee and Neji who were now facing off. No one liked Neji, or so Sakura thought from where she stood, but the man seemed to find this funny rather than upset himself.

His light eyes locked with Lee’s black ones and he absently brushed a piece of lint off of his sleeve. “When I talked with Kakashi the other day, he agreed with me that we should do job evaluations again to see if there are any jobs we can cut.” Slash! Lee seemed to take this badly, as if he had been physically struck. The man, who tugged at hem of his green cardigan sweater as he thought, finally came up with a retort.

“After I talked with Gai, he authorized almost 1.25 times as much bonus money this year for the holiday in his department.”

Neji squeezed the drink in his hand so tightly that Sakura thought that the firm plastic cup was going to burst its contents onto all of them. “I’m having the water coolers removed because Tsunade thinks we’re getting charged too much for something we can have for free.”

That was enough to send Lee into frustrated and helpless paroxysms of impotent anger. He had no retort, it would seem. Sakura took it as her cue to edge away. Naruto and Hinata had escaped when the fight was starting and Sakura shook her head in wonder at how those two were getting along now. Naruto seemed thrilled that there was someone who would listen to everything he had to say all the time without telling him he was stupid or ridiculous, and Hinata was glad someone had noticed her existence and she seemed to be loosening up enough to gain some personality in his eyes. They were talking to one another in furtive whispers by the large cake that had yet to be cut into with the red and green frosting holly and berries all over it. 

Sakura looked at the cake with some longing but decided against it since she knew her desire to talk to Naruto and Hinata was currently based more out of a need for attention rather than because she had anything to say to either of them. Odds were pretty good, at any rate, that they were talking about her. It seemed that it had become an aggravating hobby for her friends here at Konoha Inc. to talk about her as if she were some sort of living soap opera. In a way that was true, but Sakura felt that life on a whole tended to be dramatic only if you made it dramatic. She did enough of it for herself; other people should leave it to her to make a mess of things. . .

“What do you want for Christmas little girl?” Jiraiya’s smiling face invaded her thought patterns.

Quick, think, where’s Tsunade? Sakura scanned the room quickly, her green eyes soaking in information. The president was currently trying to convince some of the department heads, including Gai and Kakashi, that they should all go up to her office for a game of cards. Tsunade’s personal assistant, a harried looking woman with short black hair, tried to make gestures to the two men that they should move along and ignore their boss. There would be no help coming from that quarter it seemed. Naruto was with Hinata. Ino hadn’t chosen to even come tonight, nor would she have much motivation to when she could be on a date with her boyfriend. This Akamichi guy had already lasted almost a month; it was practically time to start the seating arrangements for their wedding.

None of these thoughts got those lascivious waggling white eyebrows out of her face. There was not going to be a graceful way out of this. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Shino. He was watching her and Jiraiya with his usual observant but detached interest. Save me, she mouthed. He cocked an eyebrow but did not move from where he leaned against the wall. Next time that man needed something copied she was so going to put big black lines down it, she swore to herself as she faced Jiraiya with a smile.

“You can tell me, I promise,” Jiraiya put a companionable hand on her shoulder. “I know you’re new here, and I want to know more about you.” 

_You mean, I might be an easy target_, she amended for him in her mind. Jiraiya did this to all the new girls, she had heard. “Sorry, I don’t have time to talk, I’m looking for someone.”

“Ohh? Then let me help you, we can find her together.” He straightened his hat and swept some stray long white strands of hair back from his shoulders. “Shall we?” The arm he held out loomed large in her mind, as if it were some sort of trap.

“I need you to get something for me.” Shino’s short statement startled both Sakura and Jiraiya. Sakura almost bit through the lip she had been unconsciously worrying at as she had willed herself to come up with an excuse not to take Jiraiya’s arm.

The cavalry had arrived! Shino was in the nick of time. That wonderful man, Sakura was going to make it a point to include him next time she, Ino, Hinata, and Naruto went to lunch. 

“Really, Shino, she’s not at work right now. . .” Jiraiya didn’t want his fun interrupted.

“I need my keys. I left them in Kakashi’s office before he locked up yesterday. She has a key, I don’t.”

“Then how did you get into your car, or your apartment?” The VP gave the serious young accountant a suspicious glare.

Shino was unshaken. “Spare keys.”

“Come on up with me, it won’t take hardly any time.” She tried not to do a skipping little jump in happiness. “You’ll excuse me, won’t you?”

“Anything for a lady.” Jiraiya, his fun spoiled, was already scanning the room for his next target. Sakura knew the older man mostly just wanted the company of the fairer sex, but she wasn’t in a mood to entertain him and learn first hand why it was that the whole building called him a lecher with the same half mocking half shamed tone.

They walked over to the elevator for appearances, but once they got there Shino actually pressed the button. Sakura looked at him questioningly and he darted his eyes behind him accompanied by a slight nod of his head. When she saw that Jiraiya was keeping them in his sight, she understood. The VP may be careless looking, he may like surrounding himself with giggling females and seeming like an idiot some of the time, but he was pretty sharp. If they didn’t go up, he would know it was a lie. What a bother.

“Thanks.” Sakura said on the way up, as bland holiday music played in the elevator.

“Don’t mention it.”

Once they arrived at the top, Shino turned to take the stairs down. He said that it would take enough time for the lie to be plausible that she had helped find his keys. Sakura said she would wait for a few minutes and then come down in the elevator since she didn’t feel like navigating all those many flights of stairs in the nice heels she had gotten out especially for the party. She never wore them except on special occasions and already her feet were aching a little.

They parted as she thanked him once more and his form disappeared into the stairwell with an automatic slam of the door. The accounting department at night was a scary place to be, Sakura decided and she rubbed her bare arms and her skin prickled with nervousness. The only light on in the whole place besides the few dim ones that were always on was the beam illuminating the floor underneath Sasuke’s office door.

She hadn’t thought it possible he could be any more heartless, but it seemed Ebenezer Scrooge lived on in the form of a certain Uchiha. Sakura wasn’t sure why this annoyed her so much, but it did. Working on Christmas Eve when all of your colleagues are downstairs at a party seemed too cold and remote even for Sasuke. If she had been Naruto she would have barged in on him and demanded he go down stairs and enjoy himself or at least appreciate all the work that had gone into making the party happen. Still with the engrained responses of a professional assistant rubbed into her mental workings after several years of that kind of work, she knocked first before barging in.

“What do you want?” Sasuke’s face was illuminated by the computer screen he faced, eyes lit up like a demon’s from the glare. Once he saw it was her, and the door shut after her entrance, he cautiously put his glasses back on. She already knew about that little secret, so it did no good to pretend to do work if he couldn’t see it. This way he could actually go back to work and ignore her until she left. Now he looked like he had no eyes, mathematical figures reflected in distorted images back at an angle to Sakura’s eyes.

Sakura leaned forward resting her palms on the edge of his desk. “I can’t believe you. Locked away in your fortress of solitude it seems.”

He didn’t respond, he just typed and clicked the mouse beside him every so often. When he did speak, it was several long moments later all of which had consisted of her staring at him with a measuring glance. “Unless you’re going to be useful, you can leave.”

“Can I?” Sakura’s voice held enough sarcasm to bring Sasuke’s face away from the computer screen once more with a grimace.

“Look, I’ll see you tomorrow when we have dinner with Kakashi. Be ready.” Her shocked expression forced him to give her a generally fed up grimace. “You didn’t get the memo I sent you, did you?”

“Memo?!” Sakura walked over so that she could stand there and scold him properly from her superior standing position. “Why wouldn’t you tell me in person? And what if I had plans?”

Her plane ticket had been canceled as soon as she had started the job here on the first of the month. She would have needed to take two days off to make the timing of her visit home work, and she didn’t want to push her luck in a new job by demanding vacation days she didn’t have yet. That call home had been heartbreaking, and she hadn’t liked the idea of a Christmas spent alone, but this was not what she had in mind when she thought about finding company. It wasn’t the act itself that bothered her so much as Sasuke’s dictatorial and aloof way of going about things. Not even Kakashi, his adoptive father figure and her boss, someone who should have had concern for. . . wait, he had alluded to things over the course of the week. Urg. Things had been so busy that she hadn’t even tried to put his cryptic statements together. 

“I don’t think now is the time to discuss this.”

“What?! The dinner we may or may not be having tomorrow is certainly something we should discuss right now.”

Sasuke swept his glasses off and held them by the stem with his face drawn into a puckered frown. “Did you come in here to be mad at me? If so, you could just as well leave it until tomorrow.”

“I came in here to try to cheerfully convince you to come down and join the party. But now I see that you never would have come down anyway. You’re too. . .” She tried to find the right word. Stubborn didn’t sound mean enough. “Pig headed.”

Frantically, Sasuke tried to think of a way to get Sakura out of his office. He hadn’t been totally averse to the idea of the party. At the beginning, before other people had shown up, he had made an appearance much to Tsunade’s surprise. She had nodded and he had nodded back and wandered around like a caged tiger until the first few people showed up. True to form, Sakura had been one of the first.

In that tight little red top and short forest colored skirt he could see even more of her long legs than usual all the more accented by those tall black heels that made her hips twitch in a way that made his mouth go dry and palms break out into a sweat. Those dreams he had been having, those vivid and agonizing dreams, flashed in front of his mind’s eye as if someone had taken a strobe to his most hidden desires. He tried not to grip his glasses so hard that they broke.

With her eyes flashing, mouth lusciously pursed, and hips and chest jutting forward in defiance above him he thought his eyes were going to start watering from all the images that played in his mind of her: Sakura unbuttoning those businesslike little shirts of hers, Sakura teasingly sliding her skirt up her thigh, Sakura running a tongue the pastel pink of her hair over glistening lips. He had to quickly face his desk again when he realized that his body was having a natural and slightly embarrassing response to these instinctive urges.

That’s why he had retreated to his office, his inner sanctum, a space he felt safer in than even his own apartment. Her presence, (the real reason he had even shown up to the party, he now admitted to himself) was throwing everything off. He equally anticipated and dreaded seeing her. And now that he was here and so was she, in his private office on an empty floor, his brain was screaming for him to be harsh enough to get her out while other parts of him were urging other words to pull out of his throat.

During his long silence, seeing the disturbed expression on his face and thinking that maybe she had hit a nerve, Sakura tried to calm down and soften her words. She was still angry, true, but unless she planned to outright refuse him she should deal with this in a civilized manner. It had not been Sasuke’s way, in the time that she knew him, to think about others first. This behavior should not be a surprise. She had to be rational.

“I will go with you to dinner tomorrow, that’s fine, but you have to do something for me.”

His mind twisted the words to be something they weren’t. The way his knuckles whitened from clenching on the desk only signified to Sakura that he dreaded having to do anything for anyone. Sasuke was such a loner, and she was going to bring him some human contact if it killed him. She had planned it anyway, but having his willing cooperation made it all the sweeter.

“You’re coming with me,” Sasuke almost choked. “We’re going to the party and you need to be social.” What she didn’t tell him was how she had convinced everyone to bring up any and all embarrassing personal Sasuke stories. While most of everyone drew a blank, Naruto had a handful and Shino had remarked with his usual air of mystery that he might have one too. This mini-roast was not going to be very public, but she knew the expression on his face would be priceless, and the camera in her purse was to capture that savory moment.

“No. I’ll see you tomorrow. Leave.”

She tried to be playful, biting her lower lip and giving a coy little look. “You’re not going down with me?” Sasuke closed his eyes and bit back yet another groan. His muscles were clenched so hard his arms were shaking. Sakura finally noticed. “Is there something wrong? You look like you might be ill.” With all the work he had been doing for the past few days she wouldn’t surprised if he had given himself a cold from stress and exhaustion.

“I’m. Fine.” He couldn’t even manage sentences anymore now that he looked over to where she was bent over, her pretty red bra and the lovely flesh it restrained were clearly in his line of sight. There couldn’t be any more blood in his brain, but if that were true then he wouldn’t feel so warm. She put a hand on his forehead and he almost jumped out of his seat, only stopped by the fact that his condition would be instantly revealed to her.

“You’re burning up.” His hand flew up and caught her delicate wrist. Sakura’s concerned words ended in a squeal of pain and Sasuke forced himself to let go before he hurt her. Maybe he was too late. He had thought there was no way to hate himself more, but he had found a way. Getting her out was his intention, not injury. “If you have a fever then I’m not going to leave until you get home and get to bed.”

It was funny now, somehow. Sasuke, who had always taken seriously himself and every situation he had been in since before he even reached double digits, broke out into a wide self-deprecating smirk. It wasn’t a full on laugh, but it was a start. What was he doing? Why was he thinking like this? More importantly, what did he have to lose?

Sakura watched Sasuke smile, the heat in eyes which she had mistaken for fever turned on her and her breath caught. “Stay or leave, Sakura.”

“What?” The confidence with which she lived her life, her unfailing certainty, was telling her to get out before things spiraled out of her control. Her perception, her intuition, was good but she wasn’t sure why it was firing. Sasuke was sitting in a newly composed manner at his desk with his self assurance in place like a wall between them.

He rose, their eyes locked, and Sakura took a step back from him. As usual the intensity that Sasuke possessed was beyond her when she wasn’t angry and meeting him jab for jab. Those charcoal eyes of his in the half light that his computer gave off were giving her an anticipatory and shaky feeling. He was predatory as he continued forward, forcing her to make stilted shaky steps back in those heels she wasn’t used to. The cool press of the wall through her shirt didn’t alarm her half so much as Sasuke’s lazy but steady strides towards her.

“You’re clearly sick. You have to get home and drink plenty of water. Tomorrow you can call me and. . .”

“Stay, or leave.” He asked again without asking. No longer was she the one in control of the situation. This was his territory. This was his ultimatum. And she? Well, she was his woman. The hot buzzing warmth driving him towards her was the one that told him that last bit. The thought had a certain appeal to it so he didn’t dismiss it right away. In how many little ways had he been trying to prove that to both of them since nearly the beginning? He had given up. No more lies no more fooling himself into thinking he no longer had desires. What he desired was giving him attractively hunted looks from underneath thick eyelashes not three feet away from him.

The deep steady breaths he made, the look of fire behind ice that his eyes shot her with, Sakura came to a sudden and disturbing realization of what he intended. He had kissed her once and she had rejected him, but this time she had a choice. That made all the difference. It put the weight of the consequences on her shoulders. It wasn’t fair. She didn’t want just a night of lust.

_Yes you do._

No, I don’t. I want more than that.

_Several nights of lust? He looks up to it right now. . ._

Yes! I mean, NO! I want someone who cares at least a little for me.

_Who you know well?_

Yes.

_Who is willing to protect you?_

Sure.

_Who wants to take you to meet his family tomorrow on Christmas?_

I hate you.

_Admit it, you don’t like it because it’s too real. Too possible for you to get hurt._

Shut up.

_He’s right in front of you now._

“Hnnn!” her bit back squeal as she exited her inner conversation seemed to amuse him. Sasuke was a foot away from her and not moving closer, but she could feel how completely her personal space was violated as if they had been skin to skin.

Bad choice of mental words, good thing there was no way her cheeks could flush any more.

“So?” His hissed question blew at her hair gently. He smelled like coffee. Sakura wondered if he tasted like it too. She sighed, for all their attempts to separate themselves from one another it seemed that they were bound together. 

I hated him at first sight, she cried out in a last grasp at sanity, and he isn’t any better now than he was then! He’s worse in some ways!

_But you also wanted to do exactly what you’re about to do since the first time you saw him too,_ a voice cackled in victorious glee. _You can’t hide from me! I know all that anger hid behind it more sexual tension than you could possibly ever control!_

“St-” The word hadn’t even left her mouth before Sasuke had angled his lips over hers greedily. 

***

His hands grasped her head, fingers messing up her carefully combed and arranged pink locks. A bobby pin or two fell to the floor, but she only felt them scrape against her scalp before they were dislodged, Sasuke’s fingers massaging as they went. Then again, if they were in her hair then they wouldn’t be getting into any other trouble. Or the nape of her neck. Or the swell of her. . .

“Sasuke!” She exerted force against his chest to push him back rather than fist handfuls of his shirt as she had been doing. “What if I had been about to say ‘stop’?”

The man looked at her as if she were speaking in tongues. Then he pressed a hot kiss to her neck as he gave her his version of speaking in tongues. Sakura gave a strangled choke of pleasure as he sucked and probed at the sensitive areas of her neck that were tight from the stress of her job and strung like a bow now as she arched into him. The humidity of her breath began to register to her as she felt how dry her mouth was. Surely Sasuke’s wandering hands were helping that along as well.

Sakura lifted limp arms from where they rested at her sides and pulled up Sasuke by his hair so that she could have access to his mouth. He wasn’t stopping, and she didn’t want to no matter how she brought up semantic arguments. If her mouth was dry and he was leaving wet trails over her skin. . .

He did taste a little like coffee, she decided, as she rubbed her tongue over his in swirls that prompted him to press her so hard into the wall that she struggled a little to breathe. Sasuke only backed away enough to gain some room between them to undo the buttons of her top. He traced an unforgiving trail with his fingers from her collarbone down through the dip between her breasts, briefly parting from her as he bumped over her bra and then stopping at the dip of her bellybutton.

The way she looked at him, curious, challenging, Sasuke knew this was probably a bad decision on his part. This wasn’t a woman he could use and discard, and he wasn’t sure he could even if he wanted to. Slowly, watching for her reaction every aching inch of the way, Sasuke moved her leg up by a knee to wrap around him. This brought her body flush against his at the hips and straining erection pressed at her panties. Sakura closed her eyes and bit at her swollen lower lip, looking so painfully erotic that he wanted to animalistically tear off the rest of their clothes and finish this on the floor.

Sakura’s eyes opened slowly, a calculated pace with plans filtering past sensation and bringing new strength to her body. Fast, clever fingers began to work at the armor of Sasuke’s clothing. Jacket, vest, shirt, she made quick work of. The tie took more concentration, but she managed to get it off of his neck without strangling him in her haste. She dropped her shirt down with his and unclasped her bra as he watched her, intent and still but for the occasional involuntary twitch of his member.

The first moment of complete insecurity snagged her as she found herself on display before him. The half light of the computer was all they had to go by, and he was backlit in such a way that she wasn’t entirely sure what she was seeing on his face. When he finally reached out to touch one dusky nipple, making it pucker almost instantly, she sagged more of her weight onto him with a gurgled moan.

Something snapped in Sasuke, but then he had given up reigning in impulses for the evening and when he swirled their joined forms around and laid her down on his nearly empty desk she didn’t seem to find anything unusual about it. The fevered and expectant look in her eyes made him smirk. He would get her to senselessly cry his name before the night was over. Sakura gave him a curious look when he pressed her legs together but then when he pulled her panties over her hips she got the clue and accommodated him. One pump encased foot dangled the black lacey creation from a polished tow and Sasuke rubbed his hands over her calf before he watched her flick them away entirely. His body shook with anticipation.

When she leaned up, he assumed she was going for the belt, but she just used it as a hold so that she could pressed soft open mouth kisses on his stomach. The muscles jumped and he pulled back slightly only to be yanked back by the loop of belt with which she had caught him. He had to fight not to try to press her head lower. . .

And then her hands were on him. He hadn’t even recalled when she had taken down the zipper but there was no ignoring the way her hands caressed him almost shyly then with increasing boldness as he moaned and strained forward.

“Sakura.” She liked the way he said her name like this. Like he was dying and she were the pleasurable cause. That sharp tongue of hers could shred his ego but it was being put to much better use right now. Sasuke was a beautiful man, a proud one, and she saw his knees quiver when she took him that extra inch down her throat. He was so full, pulsing, and she had control over him, guiding his reaction with the slightest of movements.

“No. . .” He was losing control, but that’s not what he wanted right now. Reaching up a hand to even the score, he sought what lay between the legs that straddled him while she sat on the edge of the desk. Suddenly he was freed from the sweet prison of her mouth as she arched back and thrust her hips at his probing fingers. She was slick, warm, and he enjoyed watching her squirm under him.

She keened when his fingers withdrew but he leaned over to plant a kiss on her lips and look into her wild green eyes as he leaned his body forward and drove into her quickly. Even if she had been prepared her body had to stretch a little in ways it wasn’t used to in an attempt to accommodate him. But the full sensation, the completion, was enough to drive her to knock her head back on the desk with a throaty laugh. The laugh turned into a choke as he began to move inside of her. 

Sakura flailed out, bumping things as her hands sought a grip, but they had no choice but to hold on to the sides of the desk as he pumped into her with enough force to joggle the desk back with the vibrations. Gods she was tight, and Sasuke tried to hold himself back from crying out his release before she was done.

“Sasuke!” It wasn’t a breathy murmur, it was a near scream. He liked it much better than a murmur, and sweat beaded their bodies as they reached for satisfaction.

Frantic, thinking she was much further away than he was, he quickened his pace to see if that helped her along. She had been closer to the edge than he thought and her body quaked around him, muscles pulling him into his own orgasm, his knees hitting the side of the desk with enough force to hurt him. He was beyond caring.

Buried in her body, dark hair in strands and face shiny with sweat from their workout, Sasuke looked down at her with something gentle, almost fond. It was gone as soon as she had spotted it, a self satisfied and sated smile taking its place. Sakura had seen it though, and he couldn’t take that from her. They watched one another as their breathing returned to normal and her pattering heart stopped beating hard in her ears. Their bodies disengaged and they began to dress once more with no more words exchanged.

The silence was oppressive. Someone had to say something. Sakura opened and closed her mouth, gaping like a fish as she tried to find words to express something. Every time she was stopped by the possible implications of her words. She had to find something that wasn’t joking, something impersonal maybe, then again she didn’t want him to think this is something she did all the time. . . .

“You broke my mug.” Sasuke, dressed only in his pants, was holding up the broken pieces of his coffee mug. She must have knocked it down when she was trying to find something to hold on to. He didn’t seem angry with her, so much as making an observation. Apparently, even Sasuke couldn’t stand the silence.

“I could buy you a new one.”

He shrugged. “Don’t bother.”

It was strange, true, but the moment felt intimate. They smiled at one another and Sakura enjoyed the moment of peace before the doubts set in.

***

The way down in the elevator Sakura spent reapplying her make-up, glad Shino had forced her to bring her purse as if she had really needed her key to the office. She was a mess, honestly, with tousled hair hopelessly tangled in at least a couple places and great plush kiss bruised lips. A smear of lipstick had survived her heavy sweating on her chin somehow and there was the beginning of a hickey on her chest and another couple on her neck. Those were just the visible ones. She’d have to break out a turtleneck for tomorrow. Until then, she’d just button up her shirt all the way and hope no one noticed her long absence.

True to form, most of the people left at the party were drunk and jolly with warmth and conversation punctuated by the odd designated driver tolerating their pseudo philosophical ramblings. Hinata, one of the designated drivers, found Sakura pretty soon after she had exited the elevator. 

“Where were you?” The wonder in the other woman’s innocent eyes made Sakura feel all the worse for having abandoned everyone at the party to do what she had done. She hadn’t even managed to get Sasuke to come down and talk to anyone. His gruff sendoff had been softened by a kiss to her temple and in the afterglow she couldn’t help but feel charitable towards him.

Hinata had been talking and Sakura finally began to pay attention. “. . . and then Gai broke it up, but everyone had seen Lee throw the first punch anyway. But then Kakashi, who had been holding back Neji, said something and Gai had gone all purple. . .”

But had she made the right choice? To initiate a physical relationship with Sasuke seemed like a leap in a shaky direction. What if he was just doing it to trick her and make some sort of point, or even just because so many other men in this crazy building seemed to want her and it boosted his ego to. . .

No, the doubts did no good. She couldn’t live with herself if she started to think like that. All this would be answered in time since she couldn’t very well march back up there and demand that he clearly define their relationship to one another. They had tomorrow, and that would probably be informative. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about him calling the next day.

“. . . and then Kakashi and Gai had to be separated by Lee and Neji but they couldn’t do it so Tsunade threw all of them out into the snow. She’s really strong. Jiraiya helped her, though.” Hinata had run out of words. Sakura wasn’t sure she liked the strong Naruto-like influence in that rushed soliloquy. “Um, Sakura?”

“Yes?”

“Your buttons. . .”

Sakura looked down and tried to fight the urge to go absolutely stiff in mortification. One of her buttons had popped off in the middle it seemed, and her red bra was showing in the bulge her shirt made. Worse than that, she had misaligned the buttons that were left. Why not just go around introducing herself: Hi, I’m Sakura Haruno, I just had wild sex with Sasuke Uchiha during the office holiday party, how are you?

“Did something happen to you?” Hinata looked more worried than shocked, which was a good sign.

Sakura suddenly wished Ino were around. This was the kind of thing she was excellent at advising for. “I’ll tell you later.”


	9. Chapter 9

"So, you're dating then right?"

Kakashi delicately and quickly popped a spoonful of mashed potato into his mouth as he watched Sakura and Sasuke choke on their respective food items. Sakura gurgled into her glass of water while Sasuke simply coughed once loudly into his napkin to dislodge the meat that threatened to end him right there.

The sparkle in Kakashi's eye told Sakura that he knew exactly what their reaction was going to be and he had timed it precisely when he could catch them at the worst moment. It was a strange talent of Kakashi's to always be absent but manage to show up at just the right moment before everything fell apart in the department. Good timing was the strongest talent of his. Too bad he was the one who often caused the disasters he was there to avert in the nick of time.

"Um. . ." Sakura, who could come up with brilliant lies at the drop of a hat, a skill that had served her well as a personal assistant at various points in time, found she didn't know if it would be a lie or not if she said yes, they were.

It would have been an easy no at the beginning of the day. She wasn't naïve enough to equate sex with automatic relationship, particularly when it came to dealing with someone as cagey as Sasuke. No, it was what had happened this morning, when they went to visit his mother, that now gave Sakura an uneasy feeling that made her unsure of their exact status. She couldn't even hazard "friend" without some apprehension.

Christmas had never been this stressful with her own family.

***

_Briiing! Briiiiiiiing!_

"Gah!" Sakura practically fell out of bed to get to the phone that had awakened her from a sound sleep. The digital alarm clock by her bed informed her that it was 7:02 in the A.M. and she was most certainly awake. Who would call at 7a.m. on a Saturday? On Christmas! It wasn't Gaara, he had called earlier in the week and she had pretended not to be at home. There were still at least two messages blinking on her machine that she hadn't gotten up the nerve to listen to yet. This morning, however, her first reaction when she wasn't fully conscious was to pick up the phone and mumble into it.

"Sakura." Even if all she had offered to the phone was a coughing one syllable of scratchy voiced confusion, Sasuke didn't seem to be at all uncertain that he had dialed the right number.

"Hnn. Yeah. Ummm. What? I mean, yes?" She wasn't a morning person on vacations or weekends, plus she had gotten in pretty late from the party last night.

"I'll be there in an hour, be ready." The solid click told her that was all in information she was getting. Sasuke was especially terse today, but she tried to chalk it up to him not being a morning person. But then again, he didn't seem to be an evening person. And come to think of it, the middle of the day. . . Sasuke was just special.

The mirror in her bathroom wasn't something she wanted to confront in the state she was in. Disheveled, in her bathrobe and pajamas, she took a toothbrush to her mouth and scrubbed away until her eyes adjusted to the light she had flicked on a minute before. The toothbrush dropped from her hand into the bowl of the sink as she took a slackjawed look at the damage Sasuke had wrought upon her pale skin.

When had he kissed her there? Or there? Her fingers traced bruising marks with horror tinged with pride. It looked like she would have to dig out a nice turtleneck for the outing today, and maybe for the better part of next week as well. Good thing it was winter and that wouldn't garner much comment.

She retrieved the toothbrush and finished with her ablutions as a whole before she grabbed her clothes, a tasteful piece of jewelry or two, and made her way into the kitchen for some strong tea and a hardboiled egg. It wasn't a very satisfying breakfast, hurried as it was, but she could count on Sasuke to be as punctual as Kakashi was chronically late. He didn't disappoint her.

"Ready?" Gruff, not meeting her eyes, he was enveloped in a large black coat that hid his face to her. He carried the cold with him from outside and she shivered as she pulled on her jacket.

"Yes."

"Good." Sasuke turned on his heel and they were on their way. Sakura had to jog a little to catch up to him after she locked her apartment, but he waited for her at the stairs. They sat in his car, the warmth of it soothing Sakura and making her sleepy again.

There was a brief space of time in which Sakura thought Sasuke was about to tell her something, but instead her turned the key and the droning of the engine continued to call her back to where sweet dreams made her sigh happily. Her head bobbed forward and then there was blackness.

A hand pushing at her shoulder woke her up again. She had fallen face forward into the high neck of her jacket and had drooled a little into the hem of it. It was a mercy Sasuke couldn't see that particular disgrace, and Sakura quickly awoke and lifted her head up rather than stay in that uncomfortable position. The watch at her wrist informed her that it was nearly 9, and she had slept for the better part of an hour in Sasuke's car. He looked impatient, though not eager, as he observed her awaken. She focused her vision beyond him and through the nearly empty parking lot they were in until she saw the sterile geometric building beyond. It looked too professional, glossy and closed up, to be a hospital. Her interest peeked at the thought of being in a hospital. She wanted to follow what she felt was her destined path to be in one as a doctor someday, so hospitals were not a place she was anxious in when she traveled inside.

"Visiting hours start at 9. Come with me." Sasuke got out of the car, and Sakura noticed how the hood of the engine was not steaming. They must have been parked there for a while, and yet he had not woken her up. She wasn't sure if it was courtesy or a desire to avoid speaking with her which had prompted him to allow her some more sleep. It was Christmas, she reminded herself, so she would try to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The freezing temperatures outside were just a memory as they entered the facility. A tired looking attendant, who Sakura pitied immediately for having to work on a holiday and then on starting work was faced with an irritated Sasuke who demanded a pen to sign in. They asked if Sasuke or Sakura needed help and he declined them with a curt shake of his head.

"I had her moved here a year ago," Sasuke said as they stood in the elevator that sluggishly rose to their goal. ". . . when they said she wasn't probably going to make it much longer."

How could she respond to that? Sakura hoped that her silence was not taken for inattentiveness. For his part, Sasuke seemed to be regretting taking her along, but it could have just been the nature of the visit itself. They stopped short in front of a doorway, one of many down a long corridor that contained them and few nurses wandering around and checking up on people. There were voices down the hall, being cheery about something, and Sakura followed Sasuke into the well lit room away from even a scrap of life and warmth in this building. The silence was thick when he closed the door behind them.

It would have been impolite to pick up his mother's chart and look at it, Sakura thought, but she tried to sneak glimpses at it as they circled around to observe her sleeping form. Sasuke's mother had probably once been a very beautiful woman, no doubt where he got his looks from, but her wan features and wasted muscles made her look more like a doll than a person. Her black hair, streaked with grey, was tied back from her head in a ponytail that lay to the side of her on the pillow. There were tubes around her, blinking monitors, and a few bracelets around her arm telling any medical staff some vital statistics should those be needed.

She didn't know what she expected. Truthfully, she didn't think he would actually take her. Sasuke didn't look particularly excited or aggravated, he simply sat by her bed staring at her with an odd grim set to his mouth. Without waiting for a directive of any kind, Sakura sat down next to Sasuke. They were like that, silent and observant, for the better part of an hour before Sasuke bothered to speak up. Sakura was concentrating on not fidgeting when he did startle her with his voice.

"My brother ruined by life when I was little, and then he ruined my life when he did this to my parents, and he continues to ruin my life even now."

How? She wanted to cry out, have details explained, but Sasuke seemed to have hit someplace in his mental plane that she didn't want to disturb. Daringly, she snuck a hand over to wind into his and he grasped her thrown lifeline tightly enough to hurt.

"I don't know if I want revenge on him anymore because I need it or because that's all that drives me, all that ever drove me."

This was too much disclosure, he flinched and tried to pull his hand away, but now it was Sakura's turn to hold on. She wouldn't let him retreat. The brief struggle ended in a victory for her as he let his hand go limp in hers with a dissatisfied grunt. If they had to sit there with her hand restraining him from getting away to whatever hell he had created for himself in his own mind, then she was willing to chance his certain displeasure. Sakura only released Sasuke almost forty minutes later when a nurse came in, the sudden swing of the door making both of the conscious occupants of the room start out of their chairs a little.

"Pardon! I didn't realize. . ."

Sasuke cut off her stammering apology. "We were just going."

"Truly, I'm here to check on her and then I'll leave. There's no need to. . ."

"I said we were going. Come." Sasuke grabbed hold of Sakura's hand and propelled them forward out of the room.

"Merry Christmas!" Sakura said with half a smile to the poor woman as she was yanked from the room and down the hall. It was only in the elevator that Sasuke came back to himself and noted that they were still locked together by the hand. He dropped it as if it were burning him.

"You didn't need to be so harsh with the woman." It wasn't entirely Sakura reproving him, it was also a deep need to get him talking even in defensiveness. The silence of him was worrying, the brooding. All that couldn't be healthy. Not only was it not healthy but he had had the better part of a decade to do it. Sasuke might have benefited from therapy when he was younger, but instead he had been shuffled around like the problem child he had made himself into.

Sasuke snapped at her, and she was glad to see some color returning to his face. It was worrying how pale he had gotten in there, as if he were in a sort of coma himself. "It didn't matter when we left, it isn't like my mother would notice."

There wasn't much she could say to that.

***

"You're starting to go senile, old man." Sasuke let out the easy insult at Kakashi in such a way that Sakura thought that exchanges like this had happened in the past. She saw in her mind's eye a young and petulant child first encountering this man who would be yet another in a long line of fathers, none of whom could measure up to the real one. No respect. No deference. Maybe there was a little too much of the petulant child in Sasuke sometimes and that's why seeing him that way was so easy.

"You can't blame me for asking," Kakashi said, unfazed by the rude comment. "After all, you rarely ever brought friends home and I can't recall any girls off the top of my head. . ."

Sasuke twitched a little as Kakashi rolled eyes back in his head as he made a show of scanning his memory.

"I remember Naruto on a number of occasions, he was always hard to forget, and then once you had a school project with a rather scary boy who wouldn't stop coughing. . . then there was that little boy who sometimes showed up with Naruto and. . . I guess I don't remember any of the girls after all. Maybe there weren't any?"

"Are we done traveling down memory lane?" Sasuke asked between clenched teeth.

"Unless you have anything to add." Kakashi smiled at his foster son and for a second Sakura thought she saw a glint of something smug in with the tolerance he was showing.

_That man knows too much about people._ The mild gaze Kakashi threw Sakura's way was all friendly politeness.

"Sakura, how do you like the meal? I didn't know what to get after all, and so I tried to buy a bit of everything. Not much of a cook, I'm afraid, but it's serviceable."

She was glad for the change in subject. "Oh, it's just fine. I think that the. . .erm. . .the. . ."

"Terduckin? The chicken inside a duck inside a turkey?"

"Yes, it's very, hm, novel."

"I thought it was a particularly brilliant choice. If you don't like one kind of meat you could have another."

Sakura tried not to laugh. "But I think the Tofurky might have been a bit excessive. . ."

"Had to cover all my bases, didn't I?" There was only a pause in the hostilities it seemed. "Did you enjoy the visit with your mother, Sasuke?"

"You really don't want me to come back next year, do you?"

Kakashi seemed to be losing patience with this game. "What I want is to know that you've given up on this silly revenge scheme you think you have all planned out."

"I don't need your approval."

"You don't, do you? You don't need anything from anyone else. When you've got your revenge and nothing else then what do you plan to do next? Have you gotten that far? Or are you still as short sighted as you were when—?

Sasuke stood up quickly enough to knock back the kitchen chair he had been sitting on. Kakashi actually lived in a house, but he hadn't set up the meal in the dining room. There was an intimacy to the kitchen that Sakura had always liked, and it had actually been a lot more comfortable to start the meal someplace informal. Kakashi seemed to have gone to great trouble to serve them food, and she had a feeling it wasn't all because of her presence. But Sasuke was hell bent on being alone in the world, and Kakashi was willing to play the absentminded and vague father figure if that's all he could cope with.

"We're leaving." It was like déjà vu. Sakura felt him grab her hand again, but rather than run out with him in a childish mimic of hiding in a room after getting upset she wanted to stay here.

Her hand jerked from his, and he looked down at her with shock before he schooled his face into the usual mask of condescension. "No. I'm staying here until I'm done with dinner, and, stomach willing, dessert."

"There's nothing for you here." Sasuke shot venom at Kakashi, who sat there with hard eyes and a closed mouth.

"And what do you expect to find out there?" She was fed up with being pushed around, ordered around, and allowing it all out of pity and insecurity over having been intimate with him the night before. "I stay here."

He gave her a disgusted once over, face a sneer. "Suit yourself." His body was straight as a pole and positively radiating dangerous energy as he stormed out of the kitchen.

The front door slammed announcing his exit to the two remaining diners.

"I don't know how you put up with it." Kakashi said as he took a sip of wine from one of the glasses of liquid near him.

"I don't, actually," Sakura said. "That's why he's mad at me."

Christmas was the time for memories, and Kakashi found himself waxing talkative as Sakura made good on her promise and stayed for the rest of dinner. Kakashi had stopped eating once Sasuke left and had kept going through the rest of a bottle of wine.

"Did he tell you why I adopted him?" Kakashi dripped the leavings of the bottle, gritty and probably not as satisfying, but the grey haired man didn't seem to care. "If it weren't for Rin and Obito. . . it was an accident of course. Obito was going to fast, probably, but then Rin never seemed to be able to get him to slow down. The life preservers they had on only made fishing the bodies out of the water that much easier. No open caskets for those two. . ."

She thought about stopping him, but he was pretty far past the point of being stopped and she did want to know. The more she knew about Sasuke, the better she understood how he had become who he was now: arrogant, inwardly directed, obsessed with revenge.

"I don't remember the next few months too well. . . not just because of the booze. I slept a lot. When I figured out that they weren't coming back and I was alone again. . . well damn. . . so was the kid. Found a letter from Iruka, he was working social services and had taken on a hard luck case of his own. . . . I thought what the hell and somehow I was across the country and in a shitty little rental with this kid that practically shot daggers at everyone. Saw too much of me in him, we got under each other's skin a lot."

Sakura got up and placed a piece of pie in front of Kakashi. He smiled at her with that rakish gleam he gave to all the secretaries, assistants, and even a few executives. It had assured him his victory in the Christmas treats competition with Gai. As it was, it made Sakura laugh, and it was a welcome noise in the cold kitchen.

"You're too soft for him. He doesn't get it. But I get it. The secret is that you aren't soft at all."

With a shake of her head, she let him talk and tried to get him to eat something. "I haven't given him anything of my 'softness'."

"I bet you drive him crazy." Kakashi made a face as he drained the grit from his glass and then concentrated on the pie. "No ice cream? I thought I got ice cream."

"I'll look for some." She rooted around in the fridge and Kakashi kept talking.

His voice started out muffled as he took a big bite of apple pie. "You're not his friend, you're not his enemy, you're too close to be shrugged off as an acquaintance, and you're apparently not his girlfriend. I bet you drive him crazy. What are you? It's like a riddle."

The tub of vanilla ice cream made the small kitchen table shake as she plopped it down. She scooped out some for both Kakashi and herself as she thought. "I'm a headache, that's all. Something he has to protect and own because of Gaara."

"Then he's an idiot." Kakashi watched his ice cream melt next to his warm pie. "That's it, I wash my hands of him, he's all yours."

"Is that my Christmas present?" She asked with an arch of her eyebrow.

"I guess not," Kakashi said with the sort of deeply reflective look drunk people get sometimes. "It's more like a lump of coal."

***

Back at work, it was like they had never met. Sasuke wasn't anything to her: he wasn't angry, he was mean, he wasn't there. The first day he missed work, that Monday, everyone in the office was whispering to one another. It was something that Sasuke just didn't do. He was a machine. There had to be some sort of debilitating accident involved if Uchiha couldn't get to work.

Turned out all it was, was that he wanted to avoid a certain pink haired assistant. Kakashi told Sakura not to worry, even lessening her workload by showing up more as a way to apologize a bit for both getting drunk and not being able to drive her home after Sasuke had left in a huff. While his consideration was nice, she would have preferred something from Sasuke. An apology was a distant pipe dream, but human behavior would have been welcome.

Damnit, she cared about the bastard. Try as she might, she couldn't help but feel like she was the only one who could had gotten close enough to him to have a chance of helping him bleed out the poison of his cherished but unhealthy desire for revenge. No one else could crack his shell, but she had enough to see some things she shouldn't have.

When Naruto practically ran to her department as she was picking up her things and getting ready for lunch with Ino and her boyfriend who Sakura would finally get to formally meet, his eyes were electric with excitement.

"Hinata and Neji just had the biggest fight ever in Human Resources all over you!"

"Wha?" Sakura dropped down into her chair, limbs akimbo.

Naruto pulled at his tie and ran a hand through his hair as he talked, a jabbering pile of energy after his run from HR. "Neji wanted to fire you, he had everything drawn up and ready, and Hinata found out and stormed out of her office when she heard him talking to the secretary there. She grabbed the forms out of his hand and tore them up right in front of them, and then they had a screaming match that I heard a floor up on the stairs as I was walking down to go get her for lunch. They were both out for blood. . ."

"Is Hinata ok?"

The blond man gave Sakura a broad wink. "She's better than ok. I mean, of course she's a crying nervous wreck right now and refuses to come out of her office, but you still have a job and I'm sure when this all blows over she'll find out she had more confidence than she thought she did." He got a dreamy look. "When she called him a 'misogynistic prick' I just about wet my pants I needed to laugh so hard. God she's sexy when she's all animated like that. . ." Sakura saw Naruto fade into his own little world and took the opportunity to slip out.

Everything, everyone, they were all falling apart at the seams and it was all because of her. Sasuke was avoiding her, and arguing with Kakashi even more violently than he had before, Hinata was having a nervous breakdown in her office, the entire accounting department might come under review for poor performance due to the sudden decline in productiveness from both Shino and Sasuke, Neji was out for her blood, and there were notes on her desk (one even from Tsunade's secretary) that said if she couldn't help with some last minute plans for the New Year's party then it would probably be a huge disaster (Tsunade was dramatic and she liked hyperbole).

Maybe she should have never come here, maybe she should have licked her wounds and gone back to her parents for a few months before she applied for medical school. They had always been supportive of her, and it wasn't a big intrusion. As it was, she was giving everyone a coronary of one type or another. The worst part was that she didn't even try to do it, it had happened because Sakura was who she was: a little opinionated, a little bothersome and pro-active, and a lot arrogant that she was perfectly right in what she was doing. Worst of all, she cared. All this chaos was hurting her. She wanted simplicity, she wanted someone else to take control and make it all ok.

She wanted. . .

Gaara?

"Gaara!" He was waiting for her by the information desk, which she had to pass coming from the elevator. She had been avoiding his calls, so of course he would have to see her in person if he wanted anything. It wasn't like he had stopped working for Tsunade and Jiraiya because Sakura had run off on their date more than a week ago.

"Did your phone number change recently?" His voice was cool, with a hint of irritation.

"No. I've been. . . very busy."

"I see."

They stood, facing one another, and Sakura cleared her throat. "I need to get going, Ino is waiting for me and I'm already a little bit late. . ."

"Are you doing anything for New Year's?"

"What?" She didn't want him to clarify. Sakura knew very well what he was going to ask, even as she knew she had no reason to refuse him.

Gaara had the grace to look a little nervous, as if he thought she would refuse. "I would like it if you came to the firm's party this year. Temari really went all out this year, and I know there are people from the office who would like to see you again."

But Sasuke. . .

_But Sasuke. . ._

A shock of improbably styled black hair jerked past her peripheral vision. Gaara might not even have seen it, he was watching Sakura with his usual intensity.

Sasuke had passed by. He had passed by and seen her talking with Gaara. So much for protecting her. If a little anger was enough to get him to abandon her, then what could she count on? It fit her depressing image of her situation here very well.

But Sasuke. . . wasn't her problem. If he was so sure he could heal his own heart by harming others then he could learn his own lessons the hard way.

"I know I came on too strong before. Please, Sakura, give me another chance." If he was sincere or not, she wasn't sure, but her answer had been determined once Sasuke had left her standing there with his rival.

The hard line to her jaw wasn't encouraging even if her words were. "I have to go now, but call me tonight and tell me what time I should get there. I really am late to meet Ino."

"Don't worry," Gaara said, a cocky and relieved smile making him seem more boyish and less frightening. "I can give you a ride."


	10. Chapter 10

Sasuke occupied a corner of Naruto's apartment, darkening it with his black mood and all too easily made scowls. Around him a party happened, but he was having none of it. Supposedly, it was the pre-funk before the whole group made their way to what Konoha Inc. offered as a New Year's party. Unlike Christmas, where no expense was spared, New Year's was often a neglected holiday in which most of the budget was spent on booze and a cheesy band. Rumor had it that this year was going to be just like the rest. So here he found himself, dragged despite his best intensions to ring in the New Year on his own sleeping through the ball drop, in Naruto's apartment that was chalk full of his advertising projects, sports equipment, random junk he found dumpster diving, and a few sad and overused pieces of (admittedly comfortable) furniture.

Hinata was laughing softly while Naruto told a joke and lazily draped an arm over her shoulders. Although Sasuke could never say that he was entirely uncomfortable with the opposite sex, he also never reached a point where he could be so physical, so natural, in the way that Naruto seemed to be. Lee was talking to the two of them, and Sasuke could tell even over the blaring music that they were talking about him. Naruto's not so surreptitious pointing and Lee's guilty glances gave it away. Let them talk, he didn't care.

He started to think maybe he should care when Lee, dressed in another one of his saturated colored sweaters, began to purposefully stride towards his corner. They were the kind of sweaters that were the color of kid's finger paints; it was orange today. Sasuke looked away at the wall, encountering a stupid picture of a fish contemplating a hook, and even managed to ignore the way Lee loudly cleared his throat to try and get Sasuke's attention in a moderately subtle way. When that failed, the man persisted.

"Sasuke, if I may ask, where is Sakura? Hinata and Naruto wouldn't tell me, and they said to ask you. . ."

'Hinata and Naruto?' Sasuke thought to himself. So they were already a couple to everyone else, their names paired together as if they came as a set. Why was Lee asking about Sakura? It wasn't as if she and Sasuke were so paired. Even in his own mind he realized how bitter that sounded, and awkward, and a little wistful.

"Obviously she isn't here. And she probably isn't coming."

Lee's expressive face fell, and he bit a corner of his lip. "Isn't coming? Why wouldn't she come to Naruto's party?"

"I'm not her keeper. Call Ino on her cell if it's so important for you to know." Sasuke pushed out of his seat and past the disappointed Lee.

It wasn't any of his business if she wasn't here tonight. Just like it wasn't any of his concern if she had become colder and more business-like to him in the office. And it wasn't any of his business that Kakashi had given her most of yesterday off, even if he had thought about asking her out to lunch for once. Most of all it wasn't any of his business, even if he overheard Ino and she talking about how she was going back to her old firm for a party. . . if by overheard one meant 'practically leaning one's whole head against the girl's bathroom door to pick up stray conversation'. He had only been passing by. Yeah. . .

He had to face it, he was miserable and it was entirely his own fault. This was not the sort of thing he would have ever admitted out loud, but in the privacy of his own mind where accusations flew, it was perfectly acceptable.

Sasuke Uchiha had royally screwed up.

What could he say in his defense expect that he was mad at her? He was mad at her for choosing Kakashi over him, even after he felt he had given her more of himself than he had offered to anyone else. Every person imaginable seemed to take up more of her time and energy than he did, and when he saw her standing there talking with Gaara his rejected and jealous feelings urged him to pretend like he hadn't seen them. In retrospect, it was not the best choice he could have. . . hell. . . it was the worst thing he could have done.

The bathroom was occupied when he checked, and he banged on the door impatiently. A masculine voice grunted out something which was followed by the sound of a stomach being evacuated. Someone had obviously drank too much too fast, and Sasuke's chances of getting in there to get some privacy for himself were slim. He waded back out into the party, saved from the horror of Naruto's bathroom and whoever had the misfortune to be sick in it.

He might have been able to swallow his pride if it weren't for the fact that everyone was expecting him too. It was unfair in extremes that while Sasuke wanted to run off, find Sakura, and sweep her away with him. . . he wasn't that kind of guy, and everyone expected him to be anyway. He didn't like following through on other people's expectations in that way, but he was starting to wonder if the cost was outweighing the benefit in this particular case. Sasuke was a good accountant; if he could put it in economic terms then he might be able to come to a logical decision.

Right then.

Sasuke clenched his hands as his mind tried to not loop the night of the office holiday party nonstop. It was a foul joke to be playing on him. The cheery music, the humid apartment, the same people he saw going in and out of the office. . . he needed to get away and clear his head. Naturally, his attempt to slide out unnoticed was impossible under the circumstances. He was the best topic of gossip his colleagues had for the evening and as soon as he emerged from the hallway that led to the bathroom he was descended upon by more people asking about Sakura in various degrees of subtlety based entirely on how inebriated the interrogators were. Did Naruto invite every person in the building? It felt like it in this crush of people.

The host himself was an effective last obstacle on the way out the door, and Sasuke wished he could deck him one and step over his friend's unconscious body to freedom. But that was not to be. Naruto tried to lead Sasuke back into the crowds.

"There you are! I was wondering when you were going to stop sulking."

"I wasn't sulking." Sasuke knew very well that he had been, but it was such an undignified term. He preferred 'pondering in a solitary manner'.

Naruto laughed, mischief printed on his face. "Ok, while you were not sulking Hinata was telling me all about how Sakura's been concentrating on ignoring your existence for the past few days. She won't even allow your name to come up in her presence it seems."

"It's always about Hinata these days, isn't it? Weren't you telling me a couple weeks ago how you thought you'd never be whole until Sakura acknowledged you or something to that effect?" Sasuke didn't want to talk about himself, and it was easier to avoid that if Naruto was on the defensive.

The blond man's brows knit together. "I love Sakura like a sister," It was a good dodge, Sasuke admitted. "And she's still important to me. If she were half as important to you as she is to me then you wouldn't be here right now."

He was sick of this. Sasuke didn't want to hear any more about what he should or should not be doing based upon people's mistaken assumptions about the relationship he shared with Sakura. What he said next was driven by that anger.

"That annoying woman doesn't mean anything to me."

The punch that knocked him back into the crowd was surprisingly solid considering Naruto used his left hand to do it, since the right was holding a beer. Among the noises, the music and the talking, no one noticed the way Naruto was turning a brilliant shade of red or the way both men were nose to nose.

"That hurt, idiot. It wasn't that long ago that Gaara did a number on my face, and that isn't helping."

"Then don't talk about Sakura like that."

"So you're going to choose her over me, your best friend for as long as you've called anyone that? You're just like her."

"Me? I'm the stupid one?" Naruto's eye twitched as his mouth transformed into a fierce smile. "It's not my girlfriend who got driven away."

"She isn't my girlfriend."

Naruto wound up again. "Do I need to punch you again?"

A pale hand wound around Naruto's fist and he looked down at Hinata with shock and a little bit of guilt. She gave him a reassuring smile and he responded in kind automatically. When she turned her pacific expression on Sasuke he folded his arms and tried to calm down. Hinata grabbed their shirt sleeves and pulled them both into the hallway so that they could get out of the noise.

"Now," she said with a sigh. "I think we all need to get some things straight. . . . if you don't mind."

"What's there to say? I'm leaving." Sasuke tried to do just that but Naruto continued to block his path.

Arms spread out, muscles tense, he matched Sasuke glare for glare. "You'll hear what she has to say and then you can do whatever the hell you want." Sasuke turned on Hinata and she cringed before she began to speak.

"Obviously, I don't know the whole story. Sakura has refused to tell me, or Ino, what happened on Christmas Day." Sasuke was disturbed by that information for some reason. "But. . . it seems clear to me. . . a person who has spent most of her life silently watching other people. . . that you're both a little. . . I mean you might be. . ."

"Spit it out." Sasuke said in an acid tone.

"Shut your trap." Naruto snapped.

Hinata flushed, stammering as she tried to find her words. ". . . hopeless."

The men, charged as they were with rage at one another, found themselves deflating as they tried to understand Hinata's point.

"Sakura lost hope in you, and I suppose the same goes for you. It wasn't really a failing between you two. . . I mean, it was, but you're both only human. . ." Hinata was losing steam, her voice growing softer, harder to hear over the noise coming through Naruto's apartment door and filling the hallway. "I think that if you could offer her a sign of good faith, then she'd forgive you."

"Yeah, right." Sasuke sounded more than a little skeptical. Honestly, he merely didn't want to hear her words.

Hinata frowned at him, the only time he had ever seen something like anger in her eyes and face. "Believe what you will, but you know I'm right." Her assertive tone was so uncharacteristic that he found himself starting. "You're the only one blocking happiness for both of you at this point. I'm not telling you what to do, in fact if you don't think she'll forgive you then I advise you to stay away from her. But if it's because you can't forgive her. . . I don't want to lose my respect for you Sasuke, but I will if that's the case."

With a sage-like nod, Naruto silently agreed with the woman who grasped his hand and led him back to the door. Sasuke stood alone in the hall and watched them disappear into the party again.

"It's your choice." Hinata said before she shut the door. "Yeah!" Naruto added from inside. His enthusiasm almost made Sasuke smile, but he stifled it.

Sasuke turned on his heel. Forgiveness? That wasn't something he was good at. His life, his quest for revenge, they could be seen as standing for the exact opposite of that act that Hinata made sound so simple. This would take some thought, and he got the feeling that he had better do that thinking fast. Who knew what would happen to her in one night when there was nothing to get between her and Gaara.

***

"Tenten!" Sakura cried as she embraced her only real friend among those who had attended the New Year's party. Tenten had come to the firm about the same time as Sakura, only as the assistant to Temari. They didn't often see one another, but the time they did was filled with similar horror stories about the amount of work they handled and the devastated looking clients who found more than they bargained for in the personalities of both Gaara and Temari. Sometimes Sakura and Tenten felt like old soldiers commiserating, and she was sad that she had forgotten about her comrade in arms so readily.

"Sakura?" Tenten, who had been swirling a glass of wine and looking around at the people who had decided to show up, suddenly became animated. "This is great! So when do I congratulate you?"

Sakura didn't know what to say to that. "What?"

"You snagged the infamous Gaara, didn't you? I mean, why else would you come here with him except as his date. I thought it was only a rumor that you were dating, but. . ."

"Where did you hear that?" Sakura looked a little green.

Tenten leaned her head in conspiratorially. "I overheard Temari and Gaara arguing about it a few weeks after you got fired. Gaara had been going through assistants like mad, no temp agency will touch him now, and Temari called him into her office to tell him to shape up. Your name was mentioned a few times, at top volume."

"Oh."

"Are you ok? Did you eat something that didn't agree with you?"

Sakura forced a smile. "No no. Never mind me. How are you doing?"

"It's like Temari doesn't sleep. Then again, that's more Gaara's fame around here. No rest for the wicked they say. And that means no rest for their assistants either." She put down her glass on the table beside her laden with various snack foods, and sighed. "I'm starting to think I should do what you did, you know, go find a job somewhere else."

"I didn't exactly pick up and go. I was fired." Sakura walked over and sampled an out of season strawberry. It tasted slightly sour, but she barely registered that.

Tenten smiled, half of her face lifted up and the other seeming to twist into a sardonic grin. "You got promoted, if you ask me. I haven't seen you this look this lively since we started here. If Konoha can lift you up so fast, maybe I should go work there."

"It's funny you should say that, I was thinking of leaving, you remember how I wanted to go to med school, and I know a person that certainly won't be any worse to work with than Temari. I know people and I can put in a good word for you with HR. Unless you interview with Neji. . ."

"Who?" Tenten turned and picked up her glass again only to whirl back with a signal in her eyes. It was that stony expression that they had both mastered when they were assistants, the one that betrayed no emotion of any kind. That meant one of three things.

Turned out it was a lesser evil, so to speak.

"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Haruno. I hear you're still in negotiations with my brother." Kankuro, cocky and leering slightly at the two pretty assistants, laid companionable arms over their shoulders. At least it would have been companionable if it weren't for the fact that Kankuro wasn't that type of person. Something in Sakura's mind began to scream. She wished she could molt out of her skin like a snake and leave this man to play his mind games with someone else, but she wasn't about to abandon Tenten.

"Negotiations? I received my severance pay, if that's what you are referring to."

Kankuro smiled, he had always liked talking with Sakura and often pointedly did it at office gatherings. In hindsight, Sakura thought that it might have been to get at Gaara and not because he had any real interest in her.

"If that's all it is, then I think my little brother is going to be very disappointed by the end of tonight. I don't suppose you stick around anyway until midnight tonight. You see, I made a little wager not but a few minutes ago with Shikamaru. . ."

The girls continued to remain expressionless as dolls, well trained from years of experience, even as Kankuro's face twisted in pain as his arm was pulled at an odd angle off of Sakura's shoulder.

"Don't touch her." Gaara's voice was colder than the delicately carved ice crane they were standing near.

"I should charge you with assault." Kankuro rubbed his arm and gave Gaara a sniveling pout. "You should show your older brother a little more respect. I still bring in more money then you do. And I actually have repeat clients."

"Well see how this year's figures work out." Was all Gaara replied with. "Sakura? Will you come with me for a moment?"

Tenten and Sakura exchanged a glance. If she wanted out, now was the time. Tenten arched an eyebrow, silently asking what to do. Sakura gave a little shake of her head. It wouldn't do to run away every time she had to face Gaara. For so long she had avoided talking to him alone that she was unsure as to what she feared anymore. Bleakly, she tried to come to terms with the possibilities and her answers.

"Will you excuse me, Tenten, Kankuro?" They nodded at her politely and Sakura walked off with Gaara while pretending that they weren't going to start speculating about them as soon as Sakura was out of hearing range. It seemed it was her fate to be the topic of gossip no matter where she was. Oh, her kingdom for a boring life!

Gaara led them through crowds of people that Sakura remembered well by face if not by name. A few spared her a glance, others glares, but in the end she knew she was only a footnote to their busy lives here now. It used to be she was neigh unto a goddess, the Voice of Gaara, the servant to one of the all powerful and feared siblings. Now she was that person who might have made coffee once, but back to that case Temari was handling yesterday. . .

Upstairs, in his office, Sakura felt uneasy. This was Gaara's space. For a disturbingly long moment in her mind she thought about Sasuke. It was unavoidable, really, since it was his fault she was here in a way.

_Admit it, you did it to spite him._

I don't need to admit it. I know I did it to spite Sasuke.

_Well, um, just so you know._ Her inner voice was put out at the ready agreement.

Walking across the room, Gaara drew the blinds back, letting in the light from the street reflected off of the snow that fell lightly outside onto the ground many stories below. The whole world, and Gaara's office as well, was filled with an orange city glow and Sakura saw how tense Gaara seemed. Her heart broke a bit, knowing she had led him on tonight by coming to this party. As mad as she was at Sasuke, she couldn't hate him and if she wasn't mistaken what she felt for that man (despite her best intentions not to) was rather more like the opposite of hate.

Sasuke was something along the lines of nice for offering his help, but Sakura didn't need a protector or a crutch. If she didn't face her fears then she would never grow. Now was the time to break out and take a stand. She didn't need people holding her hand to get along in this world, and she would prove her competence.

"You're probably curious as to why I would attempt to be a part of your life after what I did to you." Gaara didn't face her. For all anyone knew, had they been looking, it was a lot like the old days in which she would take dictation while he stared at the rushing people and cars below. Sakura thought that he was comforted by the reinforcement in his mind that most people were as insignificant as the ants they resembled at this height.

Sakura shifted on her feet. "Maybe a little. Though I admit, I was much more curious about how to go about finding a new job at the beginning."

"It was Temari, you see, after that mess with her and Shikamaru. . . well, she got that regulation passed quickly enough. You remember."

"Right. No intra-office dating."

Gaara began to pace, up and down the length of the windows, his slightly gaunt frame was silhouetted against the flurries of orange white. "What was I supposed to do?"

"You could have appealed for a change in regulation." Sakura wanted to have pity for him, but it was hard when she was the one who had been screwed over in all of these dealings.

"You don't understand. That would have taken months. By then it might have been too late to act. I did the only thing I could think to do."

Sakura met his eyes, the expression that was as close to pleading as she had ever seen from him, but still looked more demanding than anything. "I could have forgiven you acting possessive, even the way you began to butt into my life on a regular basis. You think I didn't notice the way you were asking for overtime more often on the few days off I had? I didn't know what your motive was, but it didn't feel right."

"Was that hopeless from the beginning?" Gaara walked over to lean across his desk, arms propping him up, and Sakura stared at him levelly. "Tell me I have a chance, and I promise you nothing can ever harm you again."

"You care that much?"

Gaara dragged a hand over the side of his face, as if she had slapped him. "Yes, damnit, yes. I have to have you. Yes or no." Black or white. Gaara didn't like indecision.

It was so hard now that she was here. To say the words sounded so easy in her head, but his presence was so large, filling the room. Years of saying 'yes, sir' were a powerful side note in her behavioral tendencies with this man. It had never been a matter of choice before. But doing what he wanted was no longer her job, and she couldn't devote herself to someone so entirely selfish. Even Sasuke had offered more, even if he wasn't her favorite person these days. The worst part of it, really, was the selfishness. She might have been able to give Gaara a shot if it hadn't been for the complete disregard for what she might want or need from a relationship as well.

"I'm sorry, Gaara, I. . ." That was as far as she got with her 'no'.

"Get out." Gaara had never dealt with rejection or failure in a positive way.

"You don't need to blame your. . ."

"I said get out, Sakura, before I do something I'll regret."

With her refusal over with, Sakura exited the dark office and left Gaara to his thoughts. The muffled crashes that she heard behind her told her how he was taking it. It sounded like an expensive episode this time. Gaara's rages rarely included people anymore, but the damage to goods assured that no important documents were stored near him.

In the elevator Sakura watched her hand shake and tried to get herself to calm down. Staring down Gaara, telling him the truth finally, had been one of the most nerve-wracking things she had ever done. It would be a relief to sit down and cry to get all the excess emotions out, but right now she needed to smile and make small talk before she left. It wouldn't do to make things any more suspicious than they already were.

"I was thinking about what you said," Tenten mused later after Sakura had found her again. The pink haired woman had to go through a couple glasses of champagne before her hands stopped shaking. Tenten was kind enough not to remark on it. "If you could give me a number, I might call up Konoha and see if they need anyone. Temari will be livid, but I know she wouldn't be so petty as to give me a bad reference. God knows the woman owes me for all the crap I've put up with."

"You're quite right. My wife's horrible to her assistants. I don't know why you stayed as long as you did." Tenten spat a healthy portion of the wine she had been drinking back into the glass. Shikamaru had crept up on them somehow, thought part of that could have been due to the alcohol that both of them had imbibed over the past hour of discussion.

The lazy eyed dark haired man seemed as bored with the party as Sakura felt. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Shikamaru came to these functions. He had had a brief but amazing time here, but after the whole marriage and debate over partnership, he had quit in the middle of it all. Currently, he was strictly an independent consultant. This suited everyone; most of all Shikamaru who could now turn down any case he thought was too bothersome.

"I think you're going to win whatever bet you made with Kankuro." Sakura said slightly dreamily. Those glasses of champagne sure hit hard on an empty stomach.

"Heh. So he told you about that eh? He always had a direct approach to these things. I'm surprise he didn't offer you money to stay. He's been trying to win against me for years."

"Couldn't get that far, Gaara happened by." Sakura remembered in a flash what had happened several floors above them, as well as the destruction that might still be occurring. "I think I should go now." She wanted to be sick, but not because of the alcohol.

Shikamaru sighed. "I suppose I could call you a cab. So troublesome. . ."

"Thanks!" Sakura called after him, and held up a hand in a parting wave. For being such a nice guy, sometimes Sakura was confused what he saw in Temari who bossed him around all the time. Who knew. Maybe Temari had hidden depths too beyond the rugged directness and the almost suffocating confidence.

Tenten let out a nervous gust of air. "At least it wasn't Temari. I would have been out on my butt so fast. . ."

"I thought you wanted to come to Konoha."

"Sure, but not yet!" Tenten gave a sly smile. "So, one more thing before you go. . . you kept mentioning this Sasuke guy. Do you have a bit of a crush?"

Sakura wished that alcohol hadn't made her so loose lipped, as she spoke about her new friends at Konoha Inc. "He crushes something, that's for sure. We had a, er, thing, but who knows what he's about now. I'm not sure what's going on. All I do know is that this stuff with Gaara should be over. He knows I don't want him, and that should be enough. Gaara doesn't have time for people he can't intimidate."

"You might be hasty there, but probably he'll leave you alone a bit more. Although, you'll be lucky if he doesn't start doing something creepy like stalking you anyway or ruining your life out of spite." Tenten had been thinking out loud, and realized it too late. She covered her mouth and tried to pat Sakura on the back. "But you're probably right, this is probably the end. . . probably."

Sakura responded sarcastically. "Thanks a lot, Tenten."

"What are friends for?" Tenten waved back as Shikamaru gestured to them across the room. He had gotten that cab fast, but then they were all over the city looking for people party hopping. Downtown was busy, even a half hour before midnight.

"I'll give you a call, we should do something sometime."

"I'd like that." They hugged and Sakura made her way back through the crowd. She thanked Shikamaru, got her things from where her coat and purse had been checked, and wandered out into the snow.

The rosy glow on her cheeks was too warm and she faced the sky, letting snow cool her off. The cab honked once, but she ignored it. It felt nice to be in the snow, to have relief roll off of her in waves.

"You're going to catch a cold. Alcohol only makes you think you're warmer, but you aren't really. What with all your medical knowledge, I didn't think you'd be so stupid about your own health."

How quickly her night became stressful again.

"Sasuke, why are you here?"

"A sweet voice and a hard fist. . . never mind." He cleared his throat. "I'm waiting for you."

Sakura looked at him, his coat covered in snow, the slightly blue tint to his already pale skin. He must have been here a while.

"Why didn't you come inside?"

"I tried, but it's a private party."

"I wouldn't think something so small would stop you."

"You wouldn't think so, no." He looked away from her, shaking his head to make some of the snow on it fly off.

This seemed all wrong. Did he come here to make clear to her what she made clear to Gaara? It wasn't something she needed right now. It wasn't something she could handle in this state.

"Look, I'd rather go home now. I don't think I want to hear what you have to say to me."

***

They lay on her couch, draped over one another partially for warmth but more because Sakura had fallen asleep and Sasuke didn't bother to move her after she sprawled over him. She had made it through the ball drop on TV, and then a little bit of the bad made for TV movie that had followed, but she was out before 1 a.m. easily. He pulled back her hair from her face and felt his heart swell painfully and uncomfortably. Still, he was unsure that he was doing the right thing, but it had been much more painful without her so this was preferable in comparison.

It was going to be weird being at work with her again. Now that they were. . . more than friends. . . he might get distracted like he did before. And what about sleeping arrangements? Would she allow him to get close to her like that again soon, or was he still in the dog house? There were questions that had yet to be answered, but mostly he was unconcerned. They were together now, and that's what was important.

_"I came to apologize."_

_ _She looked shocked, a doe in headlights, until the cab honked again more impatiently._ _

_ _ _"Stop. Not tonight I said." Her voice was choked._ _ _

_ _ _ _"I was. . ." He couldn't say it. Sasuke had spent nearly an hour waiting outside of this building trying to think of what he was going to say when she came out, with or without Gaara, and hadn't come up with anything better than what he was blurting out. "You forgive me, I know you do."_ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _She couldn't follow his thought process at all, it seemed, judging from the way that her pretty face went from sorrowful to utterly baffled._ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _"Because I forgive you too."_ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _"I must have had a lot more to drink than I thought." She mumbled to herself. Sasuke had moved forward up next to her. He was close to wrapping his arms around her, but he refrained from that temptation until he was surer of her reaction._ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Sasuke had to grind his teeth together a little before he went on to what he had to say next. "The past. . . doesn't matter." Eyes like his, older and more uncaring, flashed through his mind. But the searing anger wasn't what was important to him; it was the woman who was in front of him, leaning her head against his chest that filled his world._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"It was for the best that it happened this way, I can't rely on others to take care of my personal problems."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"You really do forgive me. . ." He hugged her to him, almost disbelieving his amazing luck._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"I'm still mad at you, don't get me wrong, but I'm too tired out to bother at the moment." She sighed into him, and leaned up to give him a light kiss on the lips. If it weren't for the alcohol, the feeling like she had nothing to lose after this night of emotional highs, then she might not have. "Now get into that cab with me before we both freeze to death. We'll sort things out tomorrow. You aren't breaking up with me, right?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"What? No!" Sasuke felt his lips tingle from where she had touched him. His sudden outburst made him blush. He hadn't meant to sound so adamant._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Sakura smiled and took him by the hand as they walked towards the cab. She was warm and soft, just like in the hospital when she had held his hand, and he felt the same sense of calm rush over him._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Good. I won't give up on you, either."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"You won't give up on me. . ." He watched her sleep and braced himself against the mild alarm he knew was coming. This wasn't being trapped. She wasn't trying to control him. He had asked for this. What this might be was more important than maintaining the lifestyle he thought would be most efficient to take his revenge._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _It wasn't perfect, true, but it was a beginning and those were always a little rocky. At least they had a beginning. They almost hadn't gotten that far._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Damn, this meant he would have to send some sort of thank you gift to Hinata and Naruto. Well, maybe not to Naruto. He was going to gloat enough as it was._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Mmmm?" Sakura shifted around and cracked her eyes open. "Help me to the bed?"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"Sure."_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _It was good to feel like he had a home again._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	11. Extra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place a few short months after 31 Days Hath December ended. Tax season is fast approaching, but a more important 'holiday' is as well. No, it isn't Valentine's Day. We'll assume that passed without Sasuke being too big of a dork. Heh.
> 
> While I paid close attention to days of the week and calendrical (not a word, I know) correctness for 31 Days, I didn't want to make a calendar all the way up to March and April for the corresponding year. Sorry, but know that I'm aware of the disjunction.
> 
> This was done on request for a friend.

Sasuke felt like he was drowning in a sea of paper. It stacked up dangerously high on his desk, all the files and notes that he had demanded or made or forcefully had pulled to aid him as he went over the tax forms for Konoha Inc. This was what his department practically existed for. This was what made him his bread and butter. This was what was causing the ulcer eating through his stomach. He didn't bring up that last bit around Sakura these days at their apartment lest he get another scoffing remark about how it was more likely his disgustingly dark coffee as opposed to stress. However, when he had actually begun to stress, she had done her best to relieve it. That had been a good night, even if neither of them had slept. Maybe especially because neither of them had slept.

But three days ago his stress had redoubled.

The hints had been coming for a while: loaded pauses at dinner when he hadn't been paying close attention, Sakura's preoccupation with how much time they could spend together, the vaguely annoying manner in which Naruto would make broad winking motions while talking to Sakura during lunch (always in the office these days, since no one in accounting could afford a full lunch hour). It all added up to something, and while he was sure he knew what it was, taxes were more important.

Numbers, clauses, rules and regulations, penalties and write offs. . . this was the whole world. He even forgot to shower until Sakura ordered him to when he came home distracted and holding on to more paperwork. For some reason she had gotten more stormy over the past few days. Something not unlike a convulsion would transform her face as he passed by Kakashi's assistant's desk, making her look more like a wrathful goddess than his Sakura. The woman had a temper and, for some reason once he passed, it just, well, ceased. No, that wasn't correct. Her face became the eerie calm before a tornado.

It wasn't as if her work had gotten any easier, because she was nearly as buried as he was under jobs that Kakashi merciless shoved her way in addition to her normal duties of placating those unfortunates who thought a scheduled appointment actually guaranteed a meeting with the evasive head of the department. No, the bleak scowls that she had been darting at him when she thought he was too busy to notice became something else entirely. When Sasuke figured out what she was doing, he could honestly say he preferred the scowls.

***

"I swear to you, I'll have them on your desk before the hour is over. I swear." The balding man who couldn't have been a day over thirty sweated profusely under Sasuke's cold gaze.

Sasuke folded his fingers into an arching tent before him, elbows on the desk, and let the disapproval he was feeling roll off of him in waves. "I need those figures. Delay was not an option. Setting terms is not an option. The longer you're in here giving me excuses, the more time you're not spending getting me those figures."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir. I'll get right on it, sir." The servile manner in which he spoke made something mercilessly predatory rise in Sasuke's soul. It was as if some little white mouse were squeaking and running in circles in front of a cat.

"Now!" Sasuke demanded, not lifting his voice but putting enough emphasis into the word to actually get a startled shiver from the mouse-man in front of him. He turned and fled the office without any more chitchat. That display of force might have been a bad idea. The man's nerves were rattled as it was, and if he made mistakes then Sasuke would be the one expected to correct them. He'd just added on to his own duties again. What a horrid day.

Through the door that the mouse had left open he caught a glimpse of glossy pink hair and he leaned over to see a little more. The woman who Naruto had lost no time in labeling his "good half" was speaking on the phone, flicking her pen in the air absently. When asked as to why she was his "good half" instead of the more common "better half", Naruto had predictably replied that Sasuke didn't have a good side to begin with so calling her "better" wasn't much of a compliment. Everyone at the table had thought that to be hilarious at the time. Sasuke didn't see the humor.

It wasn't that he was callous or unfeeling, it was just that he would rather not get involved. Getting involved was part of a wide range of terrible emotional volunteerism that had passed him by at an early age. It didn't do to go around spouting what you feel all the time. He would have ended up like Naruto, if he did that. What a horrible thought. Not that Naruto himself was bad for being the way he was, but Sasuke wouldn't have been himself if he felt loose enough to act like his blond friend. An orange can't make itself an apple by peeling off its protective skin. It was bad enough that Sakura had gotten as deep as she had.

Since she was in so deep now, beneath his defenses, it made the treatment she had been giving him all the more mystifyingly hurtful. What had he done? The few nights in which he wasn't working late, and had enough energy for intimacy, she had claimed to be too tired herself. It had seemed plausible enough until the weekend rolled around and magically she had gotten a headache. This headache, coincidentally, didn't prevent her from painting the town whatever color with Hinata and Ino the next night. She was angry at him, and in typical Sakura fashion, she expected him to guess what it was. A poor game of twenty questions that would make.

"Yes, I think we might have an opening in his schedule on the 8th of next month. Just let me take a look." Sakura spotted him, her green eyes going from the dullness of boredom to a flashing defiance that made Sasuke frown in confusion. It didn't take much to make him frown, most any emotion did it, but Sakura had gotten better at reading the cause beneath.

Instead of simply grabbing the planner from the other side of the desk, Sakura picked herself up from her chair with the phone to her ear and walked around to where the planner sat. Taking pains to arch her back as well as bend over, Sasuke got rather an eyeful of something that made him wish very much that there was a far more strict policy on hemlines. She was an inch shy of indecent! What if someone else could see her? This was inflaming him in every manner possible, both positive and negative.

Why was she still here, even? That other girl, Tenten he thought he recalled, was ready to give notice at the law office that she and Sakura had worked at together and step in any time the word came. They had talked about this around the same time they had talked about moving in together. It would dramatically lower their income once Sakura went to medical school, (put it in the negative numbers if they pooled it in with the loans she had been arranging) but Sasuke had more than enough to keep them going. He was glad to help support her when the time came, almost relishing being able to do something for someone who wanted to do everything for herself. However, she wouldn't be able to start anywhere until next fall, and she had insisted on staying through tax season in any case. To do otherwise would be selfish when so many people needed her at Konoha Inc.'s formidable accounting department. Kakashi had been so grateful upon finding out she wasn't going to quit he sent her a rather gaudy fruit basket.

If Kakashi had been truly grateful to her then he would not have put so much pressure on her. One time, with a broad wink from one of his lazy eyes, he had said he was training her for the stress of being a doctor on call. Even if it was a joke, the reality wasn't far from the truth, Sasuke thought. At the same time he was aware that Kakashi's neglect was creating a haze of paperwork that justified promoting either Sasuke or Shino by this time next year to a position with more authority or higher pay. This kind of sneaky default promotion was a chance that neither ambitious young man could turn down so they took hold of their extra work with both hands and forged ahead. In the middle was Sakura, who ran paperwork to and fro and managed calls coming from all manner of person besides. She said many of them were crying. It felt like an informal counseling hotline for Kakashi's appointments.

Sasuke wondered if that was the reason she had started her little game. It was stressful true, and this could be a way to let off such stress, but if so then why did she deny him time and again when they met at his apartment or, more frequently, hers? She found a thousand ways to torment him: wearing shirts a little too sheer for the slightly chill weather of late March, coming in to give him orders from Kakashi with innuendo laced words and gestures but never following through, or the ever popular sensual eating of lunch in Sasuke's office while Sasuke was trying to do work. How she managed to make him jealous of a salad, he would never say.

They would have been playful enough games, if annoyingly distracting from his number centered purpose, except for the undercurrent of forceful anger and the lack of any action whatsoever, just suggestion of action. If he hadn't been so darned busy he would have cracked down and demanded an answer long before the game had progressed this far, but taxes had a way of being as un-sexy as anything could be and his mind was as engaged as his body wasn't.

But as soon as he got a break. . .

Stop it! Sasuke's brain scolded as his eyes bobbed up and down to the motion of her foot itching something on the back of her leg. The high glossy pump, so impractical and unlike her, was a quick resting place for his eyes before moving back up to her delectable derriere. A finger twitched as if he were close enough to touch it. Not that he would do such a thing in public view, but desire and logic rarely coincide. She flicked her hair, seeming to grow more still and purposeful as the call ended and she noted something in the planner. Sakura's hair was starting to get a bit long. She had talked of cutting it, but Sasuke didn't care either way. At the moment, seeing it soft and full around her shoulders, he liked it just the way it was. He'd like it better sweaty and framing her face on his pillow, but this was nice too.

Something interrupted eye contact with his luscious girlfriend and Sasuke didn't know whether to growl in irritation or thank the person for releasing him from her siren's song. He did neither, composing himself for whatever it was that had entered his office. As it turned out, he didn't need to assert that professionally blank stare that unnerved even stout members on the board. It was Shino and Shino's own passive stare could rival Sasuke's in frostiness.

"There were more mistakes." Shino did not pass judgment on the pile of forms Sasuke had handed over to him, he simply stated a fact to act as a future warning.

"It won't happen again."

"You said that last time."

Talking with Shino was always to the point. The rivalry they shared for a better job did not cause any ill will between them, as each pursued their course while ignoring the other. Large projects such as these which necessitated contact and cooperation did not suit either man. They had no small talk to make. There was no familiarity of private lives that could have created even polite questions. Their state of health was apparent because if they were at work then they were healthy enough. Sasuke fumbled for something to say, thinking on Sakura and how easily talking to people seemed to come to her by comparison. Oddly, Shino beat him to the punch.

"Take this." He held out a hand; there was a stack of forms with a few highlighted spots which Sasuke would need to fix and re-submit and on top of that a small navy colored paper box with a white ribbon tied around it.

Sasuke felt the lightness of the box even as he began to evaluate the damage of the highlighted marks to his workload for today. "And this?" He held up the box.

"Give it to her tomorrow." Shino briskly turned on his heel and only turned his head to say, as he adjusted the glasses on his nose, "Tell her 'Happy Birthday' for me."

Careful to set the box down before he crushed it in his slowly tightening grip, Sasuke felt the blood go cold in his veins. If he had been Naruto half of the office would be trashed already. What Sasuke did was far more deliberate, and even a little scary for all those people who had worked with him over the years. Forms lying on the desk, computer on, the world of his office in an array of careful chaos, Sasuke drained the cold and rank coffee from his mug and walked out of his office with coat in hand. Shino's box was in one of his pockets.

"If anyone asks," He told a Sakura who for once since his week of punishment began actually seemed concerned for his blood drained pallor and stiffly marching body, "I've taken the rest of the day off."

***

It was so simple! He was a dead man.

Tomorrow, what had looked like an ordinary day to him, simply what had to follow after the 27th of March, had become a day of prime importance. It was Sakura's birthday and he had completely forgotten it. Truly it was unfair, because it wasn't as if it were greeted with a million visual clues like every other important day he had dealt with up until now. Valentine's Day couldn't be ignored, even Mardi Gras or St. Patrick's Day somehow found their way into his memory banks when they peeped their heads as the new year got older.

Sakura's birthday, however, was a sneaky day that had caught him by surprise. Sasuke didn't really like surprises, remembering the one time Naruto had thrown him a surprise party. The real surprise was when the guest of honor at that particular event had looked around at all the expectant faces who had invaded his apartment and then had promptly left to go find somewhere quiet until they got the idea and left. Somehow, Sasuke had needed to see that Sakura esteemed her natal day quite a bit more than he did his.

Why hadn't anyone reminded him? He understood how foolish a question that was, even to ask rhetorically. What person on his entire floor, even among his social circle, would dare presume to think that Sasuke would forget his own girlfriend's birthday? Sasuke was the kind of person who would be perfectly happy to let people assume he was all knowing and all seeing but just as reproachful as any of the vengeful old gods. No, not even Naruto would bring this up. More likely, at this point, they had opened up a pool as to if he would remember or not. Sakura's antics likely clued everyone in but him that something was up. The only question was who had bid for him remembering? Maybe Naruto, out of loyalty, or Hinata out of good faith.

Feeling the outside of the box that Shino had handed to Sasuke, he instinctively knew that not even jewelry was going to make up for the mess he had found himself in. He needed something personal and touching and he needed it now. His very relationship might depend on it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to thank Shino or punch him. Punching him would be more satisfying.

Jewelry was out of the question, he understood that somehow. It might have been an option weeks ago when he could have assured his girlfriend that he understood her broad hints. And now that he thought about it, he realized how dense he had been. It was even circled on the calendar in her living room, the one with pictures of botanical gardens. March was something pinky, or yellow, he hadn't given it much of a glance.

Wandering out into the world without any idea how he was going to fix things, Sasuke took on the mission to find a present so serious he even forgot about taxes. It had to be true love.

***

The jerk had just run out on her. Perhaps she had finally pushed him over the edge and she was slightly sorry, but mostly she thought he really deserved it. Again and again, ad nauseum, she had tried to more than hint that her birthday was coming up. It was maybe a week ago that it had become perfectly obvious to her that not only had he forgotten but he didn't have a clue that there was something to remember. Sakura had asked him over dinner, a quick whip up of pesto pasta and spinach, if there was anything he had planned for the 28th. It was as close as she had gotten to straight out demanding he take her to dinner. Honestly, she didn't need a present, she would have been happy with a meal at a nice place and some fun activity afterwards. Sasuke, unfortunately, failed this test answering: 'I assume I'll work late like I do every Friday, and stop by if I'm not too tired.' If! If it isn't too much trouble!  
There had been a moment when she thought she would go ballistic. That night, that first one when the anger was solidifying into positive revenge seeking glee, she had a legitimate headache. Rather than pull the skillet from the stove and bash him in the head until he remembered what he had forgotten, as her hand was itching to do, she listened to something rational in her mind. If he was too busy for her, then she would simply become too busy for him too, but in a way that would make him very sorry that she was. Without any chance to really talk to him at work, or interact over much, the only thing that left her with were visuals. Oh, would she ever supply visuals.

Knowing Sasuke's fondness for blue, she started her experiment by wearing a royal blue skirt and jacket set that would draw his eye. It was the one he had peeled off of her delightfully a few weeks ago after work, and when he saw her his back stiffened too suddenly in his chair for it to have been coincidence. They were in the elevator later, standing towards the back of the thrall, as people looked up at the numbers that lit above them. Moving a floor at a time took a long time, and was tedious, but Sakura livened it up for both of them by sticking her hand in Sasuke's pocket. She didn't do anything but rest her hand on his thigh, but that was enough. At first the color drained entirely from his face, and then it found it again in a hurry as he looked down at her as scandalized as she had ever seen him.

They were interrupted by arrival at their floor, and Sakura exited, leaving her dazed boyfriend behind. He took the stairs down the four extra floors the elevator had carried him before he had gotten control of himself. Keeping his head down, he had avoided eye contact with her, but that was only the grand beginning to the game. She had told Naruto, Hinata, and Ino about it so that they would not tell Sasuke about her birthday. He had to remember on his own, she decided. If he forgot entirely she had decided she would consider this just punishment exacted in advance. It would be too cruel to continue it any longer with taxes coming due. Sakura was reactive, but she wasn't mean.

Naruto, who had dragged Hinata through store after store looking for the perfect gift for his favorite pink haired assistant, thought this new bit of excitement the height of hilarity.

"Sasuke's always been like this. Sometimes I think he doesn't even remember his own birthday half the time." Naruto bit into a sandwich, pulling out the entire leaf of lettuce that had been in the middle and somehow managed to fleck mustard onto his suit.

Hinata handed him a napkin automatically, used to his messy eating after a month of dating and much longer observing him from afar. "It just seems so. . . unfair. He doesn't even know why you're doing it."

"I did everything but write it in huge letters on his desk calendar." She paused, tomato slice quivering in front of her lips. "Maybe I should have written it in huge letters on his desk calendar."

Ino had graced them with her rare presence for lunch. No doubt she was on her cycle. She never wanted to be in public when she felt ugly, and about every month she started to complain about feeling fat. Sakura tried not to comment, knowing that pointing out that she looked the same as she always did would only net her glares.

"Well, I think it's a fabulous idea. It's like training a dog. Hit him with some negative reinforcement and he'll never forget. This will be branded into his memory forever. I'll bet he even remembers before your birthday."

"Ha!" Naruto had abandoned the yellow stain that he had blended into a smudge on his dark brown vest. "I'll bet you ten bucks he doesn't."

With disapproval shining in her eyes, Hinata shook her head and packed up her garbage to throw away. "It isn't right."

Sakura watched Naruto and Ino shake on their bet and smiled. Really, Sasuke had an amazingly good memory. She knew that if he had not been distracted by tax season then he would have been entirely prepared for her birthday, no question. A slightly more disturbing possibility eased into her mind that he did know her birthday was approaching, but in fact did not care. Even though she shrugged it off, knowing it was a long shot when she had told him those stories over the holidays about how important birthdays were in her family, no he wouldn't do that to her.

But some lingering fear of neglect must have remained because her tactics suddenly became a lot nastier after that lunch.

***

_Too expensive and she'll know you're trying to buy your way out of this mess. Too cheap and she'll think you didn't take it seriously. What moderately expensive item is out there that would be useful? I don't want to buy her random junk._

Sasuke wandered through the department store, trying to figure out his problem. Various sales ladies watching him look through the women's department with mingling admiration and disappointment. Men who skated through this section with an eye to buy either had a girl already or they were shopping for themselves and it was better not to ask questions. Eventually, a sharply dressed matron found him and took pity.

"May I help you, sir?"

"Hm. Yes. I suppose."

They stood there, staring at one another until the woman asked with a sigh. "How may I help you?"

Sasuke didn't want to admit to anything. This was so painful. And he hadn't even made it into lingerie. He had decided not to buy something like that for her because it would seem more like a gift for him, and while he was a tinge desperate for what she had been teasing him with, he wasn't suicidal enough to make that mistake. Enough mistakes had been made already, and he just wanted this situation fixed and forgotten.

"I need something nice, expensive but not too expensive, for a woman about this high, and sort of shaped like this." He tried to make motions with his hands, feeling silly. Why would he know her sizes? It hadn't seemed like vital information up until now.

"If you do not know the lady's size, then that is a problem. Can you call someone who would know?" The matron examined his face as if she could see the panic, but thankfully didn't respond to it.

Who the hell would have information like that when _he_ didn't even have. . . Ino. Could he swallow his pride and call her up? At this point it probably didn't matter. He would take his chances with what Ino told Sakura at a later date. It was better than buying her something too big and having her assume he thought her fat or an equally ridiculous accusation.

There was a payphone outside, at the corner near the department store. Ignoring traffic he deposited coins and waited for the phone to ring in Ino's office. There was no reason she would be gone yet for the day, though he somewhat hoped that she wouldn't pick up. With mixed feelings, he heard her haughtily professional tone introduce herself and ask him his business.

"Ino, it's Sasuke." He didn't pause as he forged ahead. "What's Sakura's dress size?"

There was a pause. "I wouldn't tell you this, except that you just made me ten bucks: don't get her clothes. Too impersonal. You'll have to think of something else. Good luck." He hung up with her parting laugh still ringing in his ears.

On the main level, feeling totally useless, Sasuke sat down on a bench near the entrance and watched people enter with perking expressions of interest and leave with bags clutched in their hands. That was it. Game Over.

Something tickled his nose and he looked up after a violent sneeze rocked him. He blinked some moisture out of his eyes from the sneeze and looked at what had been right in front of him from the beginning. Yes, this might work. It would be touchy, but he had better faith in choosing something like that then a dress. There was hope yet.

***

Fridays were killers these days. They contained frantic scrambles to finish up what hadn't been done that week but should have. If anyone was behind they could gum up the works further down the road. The entire floor of the building that contained the department was filled with the smell of coffee, sweating bodies, and stress. Kakashi, and Sakura didn't know whether to bless him or curse him for this, was there the whole day and she was seeing people in to meet him and then taking information from them as they exited.

Sakura didn't have a chance even once to see Sasuke let alone continue her personal mission to remind him of her birthday, (i.e. torture him). Because of the backlog in Kakashi's appointments, she was actually out of the building later than he was. Kakashi promised her a fat bonus for the end of May, and wished her a happy birthday before she dragged herself back home. He handed her an envelope and she gave him a quick hug in thanks, since there was no one around to think anything of it. It was a gift card of some type, simple and useful, and she was grateful he had given her anything at all. At least Kakashi had remembered, and she barely saw him even though she worked for him.

There would be a party, a small one, tomorrow when she saw Hinata, Naruto, Ino, and Tenten plus a few people from the old office that missed her. Tenten hadn't said who they were, but she trusted that Gaara wasn't going to show up. She had heard he had thrown himself back into his work with single-minded devotion. Whatever worked for him, Sakura didn't hold any hard feelings. Or none that she would admit to, anyway. Maybe she would cave in and call Sasuke, ask him to come over, and then casually mention it was her birthday and watch for what his reaction was.

No, she shook her head, why torture herself. It would be a night of TV movies and a bar of dark chocolate that she had saved away for just such a pity party. Tomorrow, among friends, she would rant about her terrible birthday and garner love and presents aplenty. The thought brought a smile to her face as she turned the key to her apartment. Once inside, she swore that something seemed different, then shrugged it off and dropped her purse.

"You're late." The voice was sudden and startled her.

"Fire!" She yelled, hands coming up in a self defense pose. If she had given it half a second of thought she would have realized she knew that voice almost as well as her own after so much time spent in its presence over the past four months. "Sasuke, don't DO that!"

"Fire?" He questioned, entering the main room entirely, something clutched tightly in one palm.

Sakura stripped off her coat and deposited it over the back of the nearby couch and she went forward to meet him, smiling slightly self-consciously. "Yeah, well, a person told me once that people don't respond well to people crying 'help', you know, that they are more likely to pass by and think that someone else will take care of it. But if you shout 'fire'. . . well. . . people will at least look and once they look then maybe you can get them involved."

She had crossed the room while making her explanation but Sasuke simply held his position, face as mild as usual with those slight bags under the eyes that had begun to develop recently again after a few month absence. Really, it was too much for her to hope, but the box he seemed to hold made her optimistic.

"What's that?"

"Oh, Aburame gave this to me for you."

It was like someone had popped a balloon inside of her. She felt deflated at the very least. Taking it with tight lips and an alarming wetness growing behind her eyes Sakura watched Sasuke sail into the kitchen area while she sat down heavily on the couch and opened her present. The present that wasn't from Sasuke. The present that Sasuke had handed to her without even a hint that he understood what it was for.

Shino's gift was there, at least, and to keep that moisture from gathering or, even worse, spilling over from her eyes she decided to open it. There was some tissue paper inside and from within she withdrew a pretty little pin, a miniature monarch butterfly done in some sort of enamel-like substance. Really, it was quite pretty. The lack of adornment to the box or any card to say why he gave it to her seemed very Shino, but the delicate beauty of the gift was strange enough in comparison with her mental image that she smiled despite herself. She would wear it on Monday and thank him even though he would probably be confused that she would take up precious time from both of their days to do something so inconsequential, but she wanted to acknowledge the thought.

At least he had given her a thought.

Self-pity met her rising temper with a clash and temper overruled it, dashing that wetness from her eyes. She marched into the kitchen area, first setting the pin down on the table in the living room area, and got ready to confront Sasuke with the full force of her fury.

"Why are you here tonight? Weren't you too busy?" The unhidden venom in her voice should have netted her at least a raised eyebrow, but instead he shoved a spoon with something on it at her. She pushed it aside and he shrugged, continuing to stir whatever it was he was making.

"Today of all days, you should have something to say to me. After all, this week hasn't been easy for you. I know! I saw it! Hell, I was part of the cause of it!"

Sasuke spared her a glance this time. "Yes, I know."

It was too much, she couldn't hold it down no matter how much she didn't want to be the one to say it. "Damn it all Sasuke! Today is my birthday!"

He looked over at her, face still a practiced mask in contrast to her contorted one. "Of course it is. Why else would I be making this monstrosity of a dessert? I hate sweets. The smell is already making me sick." Sakura finally examined what he was making and saw melting chocolate in a pot above another pot of boiling water. Even if he had an inelegant way of saying it, he was making something for her. Bless him, he was a terrible chef, but at least he was trying. A recipe book was lying out, and she dared a small look of happiness before she found the rage again.

"Why the hell didn't you say something if you knew? You put us both through all that for nothing and I'll have you know—"

"I didn't know." He didn't speak often and he interrupted people even less, so this interjection actually caught her off guard.

"You. . . you didn't know?"

Sasuke shook his head, concentrating on the heat of the chocolate he was stirring, backing his head away from the sugary fumes with a twisted look. "Not until yesterday. Your present is on your bed. You might as well lie down. I ordered take out which should be here soon, and this goop takes more attention then I would like, but it shouldn't be all that long, really."

Not knowing how to respond, other than opening and shutting her mouth with unvoiced curses and questions in turn, she decided to go to the bedroom and find out what he had gotten her. On those covers, with the little pink flowers, that she habitually turned down every morning with a regularity that had scared her mother when she was a teen Sakura saw an off-color bundle.

No note. She didn't expect there to be. No real wrapping. That also was no surprise. The ribbon around it didn't hide what it was but she wasn't sure about it all the same. After all, you never knew what perfume smelled like until you opened it up. The stopper took some jiggling but she got it out and a delicate waft of something floral made her close her eyes and appreciate it. She knew what cheap perfume smelled like, and the metallic tang it left in the mouth after invading the sinuses. This was clearly not cheap perfume.

"It reminded me of you." Sasuke stood in the doorway as she whipped around. "I went to six different counters and smelled about a hundred or more of those horrible testers before I found something right. I was nearly sick after that, and I don't think the suit jacket I wore that day will ever be the same."

Sakura replaced the stopper, knowing that the gruff manner in which he was speaking to her was probably hiding his nervousness, and maybe even a hint of guilt. She knew these things because she was starting to feel a healthy portion of her own guilt for the childish way in which she had acted.

"Look, Sasuke, I'm sorry. . ."

"Let's just forget all this. The food's here and the dessert will be done soon."

Amazingly, that was enough. She felt more at peace than she had in weeks, and the relief of not carrying that emotional burden anymore was fantastic. Everything seemed better tonight, even the undoubtedly greasy Chinese order out that he had had delivered would taste great even if her intestines complained later. Happy birthday indeed.

Sasuke turned around with a slightly mournful turn to his face and the devil in his eyes. "And you won't have a headache tonight, too, will you?" The laughter Sakura gave followed him out of the room as he rushed to rescue the boiling pot of water threatening to toss the chocolate pot to the floor.


	12. NejiTen Side Story

I can't say it was the best decision I made, but it wasn't the worst either. Life in the law firm wasn't work so much as a lifetime love affair with paper. Actually, there's something about holding stacks of the stuff in my hands that makes me feel better, more important, like I had a purpose. Then everything was shifted onto computers as much as possible. I don't remember who insisted on this, but it might have been one of those offhand suggestions from Shikamaru that Temari finally took seriously. Somehow, I think that if I hadn't been staring at a screen all day long then I might have stayed even with all the stress. It's like how people stay in abusive relationships without knowing why.

Maybe people find it strange that I transferred jobs because I preferred paperwork to computers, but we all make up stupid reasons for justifying life changing moments. I'd heard a friend in college decided the names of her children by pointing randomly into a baby book. Hello, little Xerxes, how are you feeling today. . . All I did was change jobs, but it was oddly just as transformative as if I had been named again. In many ways I was, because due to some fault in the copier, my name came out as a big black splotch on all the official documents.

For lack of anything better, everyone started to call me Miss Tenten. Strange, but amusing, and then even after people figured out that it was a mistake the name stuck. It was one of those kind of things. I was powerless to stop it, mostly because it would have been social suicide to be catty about something so little as my name in the first few weeks. I blame Sakura for that, for leaving me with an impossible number of people I had to remember in such a short time.

Sakura left a gap in the company that even I felt on her floor. Sakura was just one of those people who left a strong impression, for good or ill, on everyone around her. Even the people around who didn't like her still talked about her constantly and the things she did that they didn't like for hours on end to me. No one considered asking me much about me, but I had gotten used to being a number in the system long ago. Nothing about me stood out. I didn't have distinctive hair or eyes, my skills were good but not extraordinary, and my personality didn't seem to scream anything in particular at people. Even my new boss seemed confused. The first three times I saw Mr. Hatake I had to remind him I was the same person he saw at this desk last time and that I was indeed not a temp. I'm still unsure if he was teasing me or not. Sakura said the man was infuriating.

Naturally the only person who didn't forget my name was the person in HR who was supposed to handle all the issues raised by my last name having been fudged on the records and then put down incorrectly after that. Since it was about a mistake, something that Mr. Hatake didn't seem to be able to acknowledge let alone help me fix, I exchanged quite a few words with Neji Hyuuga. Some of them weren't even swear words. Well, honestly, none of them were swear words (as much as I wanted them to be in many cases). Backbone like that is for people like Sakura who don't worry about losing their job the same way I worry about losing mine.

The first person to person visit I had with him didn't go very well.

***

"Miss Tenten, it says clearly on your records that your last name is the same as your first name."

"I think I know my own name, Mr. Hyuuga." At this point I was getting a wee bit peeved. "And don't you think the name Tenten Tenten sounds a bit silly? Who would name their child something like that, drug addicts?"

Neji gave me 'the look', a blank stare that managed to be disapproving as well as condescending, as if I had insulted him. "I'm sure I don't know how many drugs your parents may or may not have ingested. What I do know is that your official records indicate one thing and you are going about this entirely wrong to get them changed. There is a process."

"But you're the person I was referred to. I thought Human Resources was supposed to _help_ people."

"I don't know what made you think I was the person in charge of this."

It would have been too painful to go over how many people I had been shuffled to just to get the permission to change a few letters on my identification documents. Instead, I decided to continue being nice and hold down the anger inside me telling me to punch this man in the face. I had heard many others in the department had had similar experiences with Neji Hyuuga.

"Please, just pull my file, change the last name and give me a few copies and I will go around and make sure all the places that need the information get it."

"I'm sorry, but your information has been _filed_. It isn't that easy. Maybe if everything were solely electronic it would be different." He said 'filed' as if it were a process so permanent it would take laser surgery to correct it.

I was no stranger to paperwork and I could see some in my future. "Would you give me to correction form to submit, please?"

This seemed to please him. Maybe here too was another person who had long ago learned to love paperwork, in a way, or else consign themselves to a slow death by papercuts. "I'll give you the form. If you had simply told me at the beginning that that is what you wanted then we could have skipped this entire discussion."

I nodded wearily while he printed out the form I needed from a document file on his computer. Only later did I suspect that the trouble he gave me was some sick form of flirting. I was just as bad though, in this rocky beginning, because I'll admit I purposely filled out my name on the correction as a 'Mr.' so that I could go back and see him again.

Why would I do that? I can feel you asking, and it's refreshing to see that I can do things that actually surprise people once in a great while. Don't think that my hand wasn't shaking like mad when I did that insane stunt. I had my reasons. Well, other than the fact that he was the first person not to talk on and on about something Sakura said or did when she had my job, his hair was to die for. That may sound shallow, but it's true. I like hair, and mine is down to the top of my thighs but I have to tie it up tightly in buns so that it doesn't impede my work. When I see people with nice hair, particularly men, I notice.

And Neji's hair was just beautiful, glossy and black, and straight like I wish mine would stay instead of the slight kink it possess. Dutifully, I waited until I had proof of the mistake. In I went for the second visit, ready to try to blame it on computer error (one of the things I was always gleeful to hear because of my rabid dislike for the machines). It would take some careful maneuvering to get him to talk to me about something other than my information sheet. Neji was notoriously all business.

***

"What are you doing here? Where is my next appointment?" As usual we started out on a great note.

"That would be me." I tried to smile, but instead I held up the piece of paper like a weapon to defend myself with. "Another mistake."

"Impossible." He didn't scoff. Neji wouldn't lower himself to scoff.

I pointed out my name with the clear 'Mr.' before it. Neji narrowed those pale eyes of his and gestured for me to enter his office. There was no betrayal of annoyance in his body language besides his expressive face which seemed to be forever frozen in the same frown that my guidance counselor would give me when I told him I still hadn't chosen a career path. It had chosen itself for me. I work for large companies that seem to be populated by grumpy and gorgeous men.

"This is your fault." My heart tried to leap out of my chest. Good thing I have a rib cage.

"It's a computer error, I'm sure."

"I doubt that. On the form all you had to do was circle one of the options of 'Mr.', 'Ms.' or 'Mrs.' It had to be your fault this time." He cleared his throat before he asked in a slightly less smug voice. "Which one is it?"

Inside my head I was cheering, I assure you. "What?" I am not stupid, I just wanted to push his buttons a little because he pushed mine so effortlessly and I had spotted a crack in his armor.

"Is it 'Mrs.' or 'Ms.'?" He ground it out. I think he knew I was playing dumb.

"It's 'Ms.', but everyone around here calls me Tenten. So you might as well also. Last names feel so cold and impersonal anyway. Don't you think so?"

He blinked, obviously weighing options before he decided to respond. Such a careful man. We were in a subtle battle, feeling out the defense of the other. I knew he outclassed me, but I had to try anyway. I mean, why not? I'm not reckless, I assure you, but I do tend to throw everything I have out there at once and then see what happens. People tell me I should look before I leap sometimes. Then again, I got burned enough in the past that I rarely do this anymore. Hyuuga just seemed like such a safe bet. I didn't think I would get anywhere with him.

"Impersonal is appropriate for the workplace." Shot down again. Just as I suspected. I hate being right sometimes.

Much to my surprise, I was in his office a week later.

***

This time he didn't seem at all surprised that I was waiting outside of his office. He actually met me at the door. After what seemed like a direct shut down on my last visit, I didn't think I would be destined to meet with Neji Hyuuga unless I suddenly took a dive in my work performance. When the most recent correction came back, however, I noticed that Tenten had been spelled "Tentenn". I actually ignored it. It just as well could have been a slip of the hand on someone's typewriter and not in my actual file. But apparently someone in HR didn't want to take that chance. I got what appeared to be a summons towards the end of my workday on that Friday. I was just finishing up some notes for Mr. Hatake on the appointments that he missed and which Mr. Aburame filled in for when it came. The precise and stark signature at the bottom made my heart move to a steady tromping march. I had it bad. It wasn't just about his hair anymore.

It was a gorgeous day outside, but it felt like an oven in his office. Either he had ice water in his veins or I was sweating out of nervousness.

"I'm glad you could see me so quickly, I hear that Hatake is a demanding boss." Wow. It was almost like he was making small talk. My eyebrows attempted to meet my hair line and I smiled without thinking about it.

"He still has trouble remembering my name. Which is understandable what with my name changing with every new form." I was back in! He had to be interested. After all he invited me here. I might have been in the wishful thinking sector of my brain, but then that itching sensation at the top of my scalp I get when I'm really edgy was fouling up all my logical thought.

Neji shuffled papers. This time around he was moving more. . . and more moving meant more nervousness for him too, I hoped. We were both indirect people and the sense of kinship helped me feel less like I was acting like an idiot already. I spend a lot of time being self conscious and pretending like I don't feel anything at all. Sometimes people even believe it. "I have no idea who could have gotten this wrong this time, but I feel like I should take care of things. . . personally this time."

I tried to make some token resistance to the idea. "Really you shouldn't trouble yourself. . ." Yes. Yes. Yes!

"I think that our employees are all valuable here, Tenten." That was not the sort of thing I wanted to be hearing, but at least he was using my name, and that was a good sign. Then he dropped the bomb on me.

"Maybe we could discuss it over dinner. I was going to have something delivered to the office, and unless you have pressing business I would rather get this done now."

By far it was the least romantic date offer I have ever been subjected to, but it was a date offer, of sorts. Or at least I thought it was. And all because of paperwork. God bless paperwork.

"Mr. Hyuuga, it's Friday evening and you're sure you want to spend it doing paperwork in your office?"

There was a glint in his eye that I'm sure I matched when he added. "It's after five, you may call me Neji if you like." I was already having fantasies about how his hair would feel as I ran it through my fingers. Even his autocratic manner couldn't take away from my feeling of triumph.

***

It took eight more dates (outside of the office) before he admitted it was he who had added the extra "n" to my name so that I would be forced to come see him again.

And nine dates before he admitted he fantasized about my hair too. (I knew we were more alike than I ever suspected.)

I can't thank Sakura enough for my job, even if my boss still doesn't know who I am and half the department wishes I had pink hair. That doesn't matter now that there's one person in HR who could care less if my name was Haruno or not.

He's still the only person in the building who can spell my name correctly.

I think I'm in love.


End file.
